Microplastics

Microplastics

An analysis, by NOC’s scientists, of our unique microplastic sample set will provide the first information on the wide-scale distribution and temporal variability of microplastics in the ocean, and their sedimentation.

Microplastics are the most dominant particulate contaminant identified in the global ocean. Emerging evidence for harm to biota, ecosystems, and potentially to human health, currently makes microplastics pollution an issue of enormous concern for society. Moreover, interaction of microplastics with marine particulate organic matter can potentially alter carbon transport to the deep ocean, which has implications for global climate.

Microplastics research at the NOC has developed very rapidly over the past three years with initial support from the EU programme AtlantOS and from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). An extremely advanced FTIR scientific instrument has recently been purchased specifically to characterise a variety of microplastics sample types in a high-quality, rapid and automated manner, down to three micron in size.

The NOC sample set comprises of sediment cores from the abyssal Atlantic (4000-5000 metre water depth) collected since 1985, suspended particles collected recently at a number of stations on a transect from the UK to the Falkland Islands down to 300 metre depth, and time-series sediment trap material collected at 3000 metres in the northeast (since 1989) and subtropical (since 2007) Atlantic.

In addition, the infrastructure of the LOCATE programme is now being used to collect particulate material in rivers and estuaries to quantify and characterise the source term of microplastics and how they are transported to the seas and oceans.

AtlantOS

Microplastics Lab at the NOC Microplastics research at NOCS is conducted mainly within the EU H2020 AtlantOS programme. Through this programme scientists use the capabilities and facilities of the ocean observing systems in the Atlantic Ocean to answer the fundamental questions regarding the presence, significance and impact of microplastic pollution in the open ocean. Specifically, the team quantify and characterise distribution, composition and morphology of microplastics in the Atlantic Ocean, their downward flux to the abyss (3000 m) and accumulation at the sea-floor (4000-5000 m) over the past three decades. They use large volume pumps to measure instantaneous concentrations of microplastics in the top 1000 m of the water column. They investigate how much microplastics penetrate from the surface to the deep ocean in different regions of the Atlantic, how these downward fluxes change over time and in relation to biogeochemical processes such as primary production and downward flux of particulate organic carbon. For this, the team examined sinking material collected by time-series sediment traps deployed at 3000 m depth at Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) fixed-point observatory in the northeast Atlantic (since 1989) and in the centres of the North and South Atlantic oligotrophic gyres (NOG and SOG sites respectively; since 2007), where microplastics tend to accumulate. They also trace the changes in accumulation and burial of microplastics in the deep-sea sediment in relation to past physical and biogeochemical processes by examining the sediment cores (4850 m) collected at PAP since 1985.