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      The deep sea is a major sink for microplastic debris

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          Abstract

          Marine debris, mostly consisting of plastic, is a global problem, negatively impacting wildlife, tourism and shipping. However, despite the durability of plastic, and the exponential increase in its production, monitoring data show limited evidence of concomitant increasing concentrations in marine habitats. There appears to be a considerable proportion of the manufactured plastic that is unaccounted for in surveys tracking the fate of environmental plastics. Even the discovery of widespread accumulation of microscopic fragments (microplastics) in oceanic gyres and shallow water sediments is unable to explain the missing fraction. Here, we show that deep-sea sediments are a likely sink for microplastics. Microplastic, in the form of fibres, was up to four orders of magnitude more abundant (per unit volume) in deep-sea sediments from the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean than in contaminated sea-surface waters. Our results show evidence for a large and hitherto unknown repository of microplastics. The dominance of microfibres points to a previously underreported and unsampled plastic fraction. Given the vastness of the deep sea and the prevalence of microplastics at all sites we investigated, the deep-sea floor appears to provide an answer to the question— where is all the plastic?

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          Occurrence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract of pelagic and demersal fish from the English Channel.

          Microplastics are present in marine habitats worldwide and laboratory studies show this material can be ingested, yet data on abundance in natural populations is limited. This study documents microplastics in 10 species of fish from the English Channel. 504 Fish were examined and plastics found in the gastrointestinal tracts of 36.5%. All five pelagic species and all five demersal species had ingested plastic. Of the 184 fish that had ingested plastic the average number of pieces per fish was 1.90±0.10. A total of 351 pieces of plastic were identified using FT-IR Spectroscopy; polyamide (35.6%) and the semi-synthetic cellulosic material, rayon (57.8%) were most common. There was no significant difference between the abundance of plastic ingested by pelagic and demersal fish. Hence, microplastic ingestion appears to be common, in relatively small quantities, across a range of fish species irrespective of feeding habitat. Further work is needed to establish the potential consequences. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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            Ingested plastic transfers hazardous chemicals to fish and induces hepatic stress

            Plastic debris litters aquatic habitats globally, the majority of which is microscopic (< 1 mm), and is ingested by a large range of species. Risks associated with such small fragments come from the material itself and from chemical pollutants that sorb to it from surrounding water. Hazards associated with the complex mixture of plastic and accumulated pollutants are largely unknown. Here, we show that fish, exposed to a mixture of polyethylene with chemical pollutants sorbed from the marine environment, bioaccumulate these chemical pollutants and suffer liver toxicity and pathology. Fish fed virgin polyethylene fragments also show signs of stress, although less severe than fish fed marine polyethylene fragments. We provide baseline information regarding the bioaccumulation of chemicals and associated health effects from plastic ingestion in fish and demonstrate that future assessments should consider the complex mixture of the plastic material and their associated chemical pollutants.
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              Oceans. Microplastics in the seas.

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                Author and article information

                Journal
                R Soc Open Sci
                R Soc Open Sci
                RSOS
                royopensci
                Royal Society Open Science
                The Royal Society Publishing
                2054-5703
                December 2014
                17 December 2014
                17 December 2014
                : 1
                : 4
                : 140317
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum , Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
                [2 ]GRC Geociències Marines, Departament d’ Estratigrafia, Paleontologia i Geociències Marines, Universitat de Barcelona , 08028 Barcelona, Spain
                [3 ]Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre, School of Marine Science and Engineering, Plymouth University , Plymouth, Devon PL4 8 AA, UK
                [4 ]Department of Zoology, University of Oxford , Tinbergen Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK
                [5 ]The Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute , Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA, UK
                Author notes
                Author for correspondence: Richard C. Thompson e-mail: r.c.thompson@ 123456plymouth.ac.uk
                Article
                rsos140317
                10.1098/rsos.140317
                4448771
                26064573
                3604a14e-fd3b-41c4-9b5d-ac75f4cb4728
                © 2014 The Authors.

                Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 18 September 2014
                : 18 November 2014
                Categories
                1001
                69
                Earth Science
                Custom metadata
                December, 2014

                marine,litter,plastic,fibres,seabed,microplastic
                marine, litter, plastic, fibres, seabed, microplastic

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