engleski

Microplastic in the sea bottom sediment

Plastic is an irreplaceable material due to its favorable properties, however, it is also one of the most serious environmental issues, especially in the sea environments. Plastic particles arrive to the sea mostly from land sources, and degradation of larger pieces results in the creation of microplastic. Microplastic refers to plastic particles less than 5 mm in size, which have become so widespread and can be found everywhere, on shores, in ice and water, living organisms and at the surface and bottom of seas and oceans. Microplastic poses a great danger to the environment especially to the living organisms and they are very difficult to remove from the sea due to their microscopic size. Once microplastic reach marine environment, marine organisms can ingest it as a food. Microplastic materials can adsorb heavy metals and various viruses and bacteria from the sea, which makes a significant problem when microplastic materials get into the food chain. In order to determine if and to what extent microplastic is present in the shelf sediment, cores collcted from the Mediterranean Sea were analyzed. Two cores were sampled from the bottom of the shelf of the southern coast of the Sicilia and the other two cores were collected from the shelf around the Tuscan islands. Only the top centimeter of the sediment was analyzed for the presence of microplastic. Sediment samples were dried and weighed, then wet sieved, first using a 1 mm mesh sieve and then 63 μm mesh sieve. Particles that were suspected to be microplastic were extracted from the sieve under microscope. Analyses were performed using the ATR method (Attenuated total reflection) on FTIR (Fourier- transform infrared spectroscopy). In this analysis, nineteen microplastic particles were recorded in sediment. Identification of structural groups in samples analyzed by FTIR-ATR shows that most of the particles are made of polyvinyl chloride, high- density polyethylene, and polyacetal. This research showed that microplastic is present in the surface sediment of the shelf and points out importance for further detailed studies and understanding of microplastic behavior and paths in the marine environments.

microplastic, shelf, sea bottom sediment, ATR, FTIR

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