Author Correction: Tracing microplastics in aquatic environments based on sediment analogies

Abstract

Representative replicates (n = 3) were available for station S2 and S10 amounting to 78 ± 10 g −1 DW and 379 ± 28 g −1 DW, respectively. " now reads "Representative replicates (n = 3) were available for station S2 and S10 amounting to 78 ± 10 kg −1 DW and 379 ± 28 kg −1 DW, respectively. " In the legend for Figure 2 "The black line indicates the transition from LD to HD polymers determined by the density of water (~1 g m −3). " now reads "The black line indicates the transition from LD to HD polymers determined by the density of water (~1 g cm −3). " These errors have now been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Addressing Microplastics in a Global Agreement on Plastic Pollution

“…Sediments, both freshwater and marine, act as sinks for microplastics (MP) whether due to rapid sinking of high-density plastic particles , settling caused by biofouling , or incorporation in sinking organic aggregates, e.g., marine snow Zhao et al, 2018). Settled MP particles may subsequently be resuspended and further transported with water currents to settle in calmer areas with finer sediments far away from their source (Enders et al, 2019). Because sediments in calm areas accumulate and sequester deposited MP, they provide a temporal record of MP input to the aquatic environments and thus also constitute a relevant matrix for monitoring.…”

“…Our knowledge regarding MP fate processes is still limited, which makes it difficult to pinpoint locations of MP accumulation. Some studies show correlations between MP and sediment grain size and/or organic matter content (Strand et al, 2013;Vianello et al, 2013;Enders et al, 2019;, whereas other studies find no such correlation (Alomar et al, 2016;Peng et al, 2017). In a largescale, meta-analysis, Erni-Cassola et al, 2019 showed a high general accumulation of MP in intertidal sediments.…”