Occurrence and identification of microplastics along a beach in the Biosphere Reserve of Lanzarote
This work studied the accumulation of plastic debris in a remote beach located in La Graciosa island (Chinijo archipelago, Canary Islands). Microplastics were sampled in the 1–5 mm mesh opening range. An average plastic density of 36.3 g/m2 was obtained with a large variability along the 90 m of the...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad Autónoma de Madrid |
| Repositorio: | Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/705858 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10486/705858 https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.04.061 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | FTIR Microplastics Raman Marine Debris Marine Pollution Biología y Biomedicina / Biología |
| Sumario: | This work studied the accumulation of plastic debris in a remote beach located in La Graciosa island (Chinijo archipelago, Canary Islands). Microplastics were sampled in the 1–5 mm mesh opening range. An average plastic density of 36.3 g/m2 was obtained with a large variability along the 90 m of the beach (from 8.5 g/m2 to 103.4 g/m2). Microplastic particles preferentially accumulated in the part of the beach protected by rocks. A total number of 9149 plastic particles were collected, recorded and measured, 87% of which corresponded to fragments. Clear colours and microscopic evidence of weathering corresponded to aged plastics wind-driven by the surface Canary Current. The chemical composition of plastics particles corresponded to PE (63%), PP (32%) and PS (3%). Higher PE/PP ratios were recorded in the more protected parts of the beach, suggesting preferential accumulation of more aged fragments |
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