Microplastic pollution in the Weser estuary and the German North Sea

Roscher, Lisa; Fehres, Annika; Reisel, Lorenz; Halbach, Maurits; Scholz‐Böttcher, Barbara M.; Gerriets, Michaela; Badewien, Thomas H.; Shiravani, Gholamreza; Wurpts, Andreas; Primpke, Sebastian; Gerdts, Gunnar

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117681

Cited by 50 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…Surprisingly, the abundance of microplastics in the Baltic Sea is one order of magnitude higher than that in the open sea such as the North Sea (23.0 items m −3 ), (Roscher et al, 2021), (Supplementary Table 2). Similar microplastic abundances in the Baltic Sea were also reported by Bagaev et al (2018) and Tamminga et al (2018).…”

Section: Discussion High Levels Of Microplastic Pollution In the Semi-enclosed Baltic Seamentioning

confidence: 95%

Trapping of Microplastics in Halocline and Turbidity Layers of the Semi-enclosed Baltic Sea

Zhou

Yang

et al. 2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Microplastic pollution in semi-enclosed seas is gaining attention since microplastics are more likely to accumulate there. However, research on the vertical distribution of microplastics and impact factors is still limited. In this study, we focus on the Baltic Sea, which has distinguished salinity stratification, and we assume that the resulting strong density stratification (halocline) can influence the vertical distribution of microplastics in the water column. Therefore, we analyzed the vertical abundance distribution, the composition, and the sizes of microplastics (27.3–5,000.0 μm) in the Baltic Sea. The results showed that microplastics comprising fibers, fragments, and films occurred throughout the water column at an abundance of 1.1–27.7 items L−1. The abundance of microplastics (3.2–27.7 items L−1) at haloclines was significantly higher than those at other water depths except the near surfaces (p < 0.05), contributing 24.1–53.2% of the microplastics in the whole water column. Small microplastics (<100 μm) were more likely to accumulate in the water layers above halocline. Moreover, the current with high turbidity might be another carrier of microplastics in the near-bottom water layer due to its strong correlation with microplastics abundance. This study provides valuable evidence for the accumulation trend of microplastics in water columns and its influencing factors in the semi-enclosed marginal sea. Further research on the vertical distribution of microplastics under the control of multiple factors should be conducted in the future.

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Section: Discussion High Levels Of Microplastic Pollution In the Semi-enclosed Baltic Seamentioning

confidence: 95%

Trapping of Microplastics in Halocline and Turbidity Layers of the Semi-enclosed Baltic Sea

Zhou

Yang

et al. 2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…However, the question remains how many blanks are needed for a representative description of laboratory background levels, to be applied in blank correction. An example using an automated analysis approach can be found in the supplementary information of (Roscher et al, 2021a). Still, other approaches might be used and need to be evaluated in the future.…”

Section: Synergies Between Thermoanalytical and Spectroscopic Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring of microplastic pollution in the Arctic: recent developments in polymer identification, quality assurance and control, and data reporting

et al. 2023

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The pollution of the environment with plastics is of growing concern worldwide, including the Arctic region. While larger plastic pieces are a visible pollution issue, smaller microplastics are not visible with the naked eye. These particles are available for interaction by Arctic biota and have become a concern for animal and human health. The determination of microplastic properties includes several methodological steps, i.e. sampling, extraction, quantification and chemical identification. This review discusses suitable analytical tools for the identification, quantification and characterization of microplastics in the context of monitoring in the Arctic. It further addresses quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) which is particularly important for the determination of microplastic in the Arctic, as both contamination and analyte losses can occur. It presents specific QA/QC measures for sampling procedures and for the handling of samples in the laboratory, either on land or on ship, and considering the small size of microplastics as well as the high risk of contamination. The review depicts which data should be mandatory to report, thereby supporting a framework for harmonized data reporting.

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“…Particles were collected from the in-house reference standards available at Alfred Wegener Institute in Dr. Pimpke's Lab, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, Hawaii Pacific University's Center for Marine Debris Polymer Kit 1.0, and microplastic samples from environmental samples from Roscher et al 24,25 . The standard materials contained 554 plastic materials, 56 natural organic, 3 minerals, 7 other materials, and 31 unknown, totaling 637 materials.…”

Section: Experimental Section Sample Preparationmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Throughput FTIR Analysis of Macro and Microplastics with Plate Readers

Cowger

Roscher

Chamas

et al. 2023

Preprint

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FTIR spectral identification is today's gold standard analytical procedure for plastic pollution material characterization. High-throughput FTIR techniques have been advanced for small microplastics (10 um - 500 um) but less so for large microplastics (500 um - 5 mm) and macroplastics (> 5 mm). These larger plastics are typically analyzed using ATR, which is highly manual and can sometimes destroy particles of interest. Furthermore, spectral libraries are often inadequate due to the limited variety of reference materials and spectral collection modes. We advance a new high-throughput technique to remedy these problems. FTIR plate readers are high throughput devices for measuring large particles (> 500 um). We created a new reference database of over 6000 spectra for transmission, ATR, and reflection spectral collection modes with over 600 plastic, organic, and mineral reference materials relevant to plastic pollution research. We also streamline analysis in plate readers by creating a new particle holder for transmission measurements using off-the-shelf parts and fabricating a non-plastic 96-well plate for storing particles. We validated the new database using Open Specy and demonstrated that transmission and reflection spectra reference data are needed in spectral libraries.

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Microplastic pollution in the Weser estuary and the German North Sea

Cited by 50 publications

References 72 publications

Trapping of Microplastics in Halocline and Turbidity Layers of the Semi-enclosed Baltic Sea

Trapping of Microplastics in Halocline and Turbidity Layers of the Semi-enclosed Baltic Sea

Monitoring of microplastic pollution in the Arctic: recent developments in polymer identification, quality assurance and control, and data reporting

High Throughput FTIR Analysis of Macro and Microplastics with Plate Readers

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