aarhus university department of bioscience 24th kimo conference, october 4, 2014 microplastic - a...

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AARHUS UNIVERSITYDepartment of Bioscience

24th KIMO Conference, October 4, 2014

Microplastic - a neglected waste fraction

Jakob Strand

AARHUS UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014Jakob StrandHumans have through all times

set their marks on their surroundings– and also by leaving garbage behind

Today the amounts and how widespread waste is in a global perspective without comparisons to previous times

- a clear marker for the ANTHROPOCENE age

AARHUS UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014Jakob Strand


Huge amounts have during the last century been delivered to the sea -and litter is today regarded as a global pollution problem.

Marine litter consist mainly of different persistent plastic materials, but also of other types of man-made solid waste, i.e. metal, glass, rubber, textiles, paper and machined wood.

both as large items and tiny microscopic particles:

- Washed ashore and deposited on the coasts,

- Floating in water column in surface and deeper waters,

- Deposited on the sea floor and into sediments,

- Accumulated in marine organisms.

Litter in the sea – is it really an environmental problem ?

Environmental concerns:-Aesthetically undesirable in ”clean” nature-Accumulation in food webs and harmful impact on marine organisms.-Source (and vector) to toxic pollutants in the sea.


Land-based sources: -Recreational activities at e.g. shorelines, -Poor waste handling at e.g. dumpsites, in cities and agriculture, -Pellet losses during production and transport,-Airborne litter and dust, -Freshwater run-off and effluents and rivers, -Extreme weather events, e.g. floodings and hurricanes

and from sea-based sources:- e.g. ship traffic, fishery, recreational activities

and long-range transport with ocean currents - even between continents

The main sources to litter in the sea

- and also to the deep sea.

AARHUS UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014Jakob StrandSkagerrak- an important deposition area for the North sea

Nordic monitoring of beached litter have shown that the largest

amounts generally occur at the Swedish and Danish west coasts

OSPAR + MARLIN data 2002 - 2012

OSPAR QSR 2000

AARHUS UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014Jakob StrandBut ... are macrolitter in the sea and washed ashore

only the top of the iceberg ?Where does the huge amounts of litter go as time goes by ?

Deposition on seafloor, fragmentation, degradation


Primary microplastic (manufactured particles):- Resin pellets for plastic production and maintenance,

- Cosmetics and other personal care products,

- Industrial sandblasting products.

Secondary microplastic:

Fragmentation of macrolitter from land- and sea-based sources

Caused by wheathering/erosion of macrolitter into small pieces

- like rocks that become sand, silt and clay by time

Mikroplastic – a ”new” issueMicroscopic particles; <5mm micro- (or even nano-)scales

Secondary microplastic, and not primary microplastic, is often regarded as the dominating contributor to microplastic in the sea.

However, local conditions, e.g. due to pellet loss from industry or effluents for WWTPs, can in some cases be an important source to microplastics.

AARHUS UNIVERSITYDEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014Jakob StrandPersonal care products as source to microplastic

Example: 0.3 – 10.5% primary microplastic particles found in some products selected by DR (national TV) from the presence of polyethylene in product declarations.


Increasing amounts of microplastic in the seaseems to reflect the increasing global plastic production

Microplastid deposited in sedimentsin different deposited layers in the southern North Sea(Claessens et al. 2011)

Microplasticfloating in water column in the Northeast Atlantic detected with Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR). (Thompson et al. 2004)


Microplastics are spread into all parts of the ecosystem

Figure from Wright et al. (2013)

Both in water columnand at the sea floor

with parallels to fate of natural occurring organic matter


Benthic faunaE.g. microplastic (mainly fibres) was found in 83% of Norwegian lobsters in Scotland (Murray&Cowie 2012)

- also found in e.g. mussels, brittle stars etc.

Fish~30% of fish (herring and whiting) from the inner Danish waters had ingested mikroplastics(Sørensen et al 2013).

~10% of cod from the Baltic Sea contained larger plastic items in their stomacs (Fricke, pers. comm).

Litter, including microplastics, is taken up by marine organisms

Marine birds and mammals~55% of fulmars (seabird) from Skagerrak 2007-2011 contained >0.1 g plastic in their stomachs(van Franeker/OSPAR 2013).

- and even found in feces from seals at Antarctica(Eriksson & Burton 2003).

Another impact is entanglement of wildlifee.g. 5-20% of northern gannets found dead in the southern North Sea (TMAP 2009)

Photo: Kresten Hansen


Mussels and fish as indicators for uptake of microplastic

Comparing microplastic in water and organisms at 2 sites at Copenhagen.Mean densities: 0.3 – 2.5 particles per individual (analysed 2-3 pools per species).

Results from fra student project (Agersnap 2013)

Results indicated a high BioAccumulation Factor (BAF) for microplastics in blue mussels:

BAF = 25000 - 40000


Sediments and microplastics Results of the first survey in 2013 on microplastic particles in Danish waters

Sampling was coordinated with the national contaminant monitoring in Denmark

Particles were found in all samples in the range of 57 - 3622 particles pr kg DW

- and fibres were dominating in most samples


One main results: Normalisation to matter does matter !

Normalisation to adequate sediment characters i.e. %TOC and <63 µm fraction can reduce the variability

caused by natural heterogeneity between samples, and increase the power of identifying more or less affected areas.

These results supports that microplastic particles will accumulate in sedimentary depositional areas – i.e. with parallels to organic pollutants sorped to organic materials.


Positive correlations were also established to contaminantsPositive correlations were also established to especially PAHs

- and to lesser extent to alkylphenols and phthalates in sediments,

It can probably due to co-variation with sources and TOC, - and may not be due to chemical extraction of the microplastic particles.

TBT in paint flakes can be one exception !


4000,0 3600 3200 2800 2400 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 500,0cm-1

%T

3415,78

2955,86

1724,32

1644,26

1434,021239,87

1142,73

1063,92

872,60748,44

3405,00

2956,42

2874,89

2360,532339,61

1450,12

1385,43

1236,661144,63

1065,34

1025,28990,30

963,67

842,50755,11

690,00624,08

Experience with FT-IR identification of polymer materials in some selected microplastic particles

76.6% match with acrylic polymer material

Thin fibres can only be identified with FT-IR coupled to microscope

Results: 5 different polymers were identified in 10 representative isolated particles

characterised as surely synthetic during examination of the samples were also identified as synthetic polymers.

However, most of 10 other selected particles characterised as “doubtful” could not be matched with synthetic materials in our FT-IR database

supporting that they most probably were of natural origin. All data for so-called doubtful particles were therefore eliminated from the data analyses.


EPS-plast4’åø3oli8

Akrylplast

Bioplast

EPS-plast

Epoxyplast

EVA-plast

HDPE-plast

LDPE-plast

Melamin-plast

Neopren

Nylon

Polyethylen

Polystyrene

PET-plast

Polyamid

Polyester

Polycarbonat

Polyethersulfon

Polystyren

Polytetrafluorethylen

Polyurethan

Polyvinylchlorid

Super Absorbent Polymer

Teflon

UreaplastVinylester

ABS-plast

MATERIALS /POLYMERS EPS-plast

Softeners

Pigments

Flame retardants

UV-stabilizators

Antioxidants Co-polymerer

Antistatic agents

Antibacterial agents

Heat-Stabilisators Lubricants

Fragrances

Fillers/Extenders

Impact Modifiers

Blowing Agents

ADDITIVES

EPS-plast Environmental factors

PLASTIC in the environment is not just one thing – but as group does it consist of many types of materials and constituents

Leakage of additives

Size of particles Structure of particles

Fragmentation/degradation/persistence

Absorption of contaminants from surroundings

Density

Amounts and concentrations

All these aspects should be considered during both research,

risk assessmentsand communication on fate and impact of

plastic in the environment


So ... some of the main questions in regard to microplastics:

• What are the most important sources ?

• What type of material does the microplastic consist of ?

• How much is there in the oceans today ?

• Where does it go as time goes by ?

• Are the larger size fractions only the top of iceberg ?

• To what extent will it pose a threat to environment and/or humans ?

• Does it really matter – or is microplastic just filling up as matter in the sea ?


Tjörn, Sweden, 2006

“Souvenirs” from the sea - or just “junk” on the beach ?

aarhus university department of bioscience 24th kimo conference, october 4, 2014 microplastic - a...

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