http://faculty.wwu.edu/shulld/esci%20101/Cole2011Plastics.pdf

Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: a review.

http://globalgarbage.org.br/mailinglist/S0043135416300021_In_Press_Accepted_Manuscript.pdf

Transport and fate of microplastic particles in wastewater treatment plants.

Microplastic litter is a pervasive pollutant present in aquatic systems across the globe. A range of marine organisms have the capacity to ingest microplastics, resulting in adverse health effects. Developing methods to accurately quantify microplastics in productive marine waters, and those internalized by marine organisms, is of growing importance. Here we investigate the efficacy of using acid, alkaline and enzymatic digestion techniques in mineralizing biological material from marine surface trawls to reveal any microplastics present. Our optimized enzymatic protocol can digest >97% (by weight) of the material present in plankton-rich seawater samples without destroying any microplastic debris present. In applying the method to replicate marine samples from the western English Channel, we identified 0.27 microplastics m(-3). The protocol was further used to extract microplastics ingested by marine zooplankton under laboratory conditions. Our findings illustrate that enzymatic digestion can aid the detection of microplastic debris within seawater samples and marine biota.

/pdf/isolation-of-microplastics-in-biota-rich-seawater-samples-235pt56lw5.pdf

Isolation of microplastics in biota-rich seawater samples and marine organisms

Microplastics in aquatic ecosystems and especially in the marine environment represent a pollution of increasing scientific and societal concern, thus, recently a substantial number of studies on microplastics were published. Although first steps towards a standardization of methodologies used for the detection and identification of microplastics in environmental samples are made, the comparability of data on microplastics is currently hampered by a huge variety of different methodologies, which result in the generation of data of extremely different quality and resolution. This chapter reviews the methodology presently used for assessing the concentration of microplastics in the marine environment with a focus on the most convenient techniques and approaches. After an overview of non-selective sampling approaches, sample processing and treatment in the laboratory, the reader is introduced to the currently applied techniques for the identification and quantification of microplastics. The subsequent case study on microplastics in sediment samples from the North Sea measured with focal plane array (FPA)-based micro-Fourier transform infrared (micro-FTIR) spectroscopy shows that only 1.4 % of the particles visually resembling microplastics were of synthetic polymer origin. This finding emphasizes the importance of verifying the synthetic polymer origin of potential microplastics. Thus, a burning issue concerning current microplastic research is the generation of standards that allow for the assessment of reliable data on concentrations of microscopic plastic particles and the involved polymers with analytical laboratory techniques such as micro-FTIR or micro-Raman spectroscopy.

/pdf/methodology-used-for-the-detection-and-identification-of-1g9yut31b3.pdf

Methodology Used for the Detection and Identification of Microplastics—A Critical Appraisal

Interactions between microplastics and phytoplankton aggregates: Impact on their respective fates

What is the path of minimum expected length for escaping a planar convex region Omega? We rigorously obtain best 2-segment and 3-segment solutions when Omega is an infinite strip, and numerically examine 2-segment solutions when Omega is a disk.

John A. Shonder

Papers

Lost at Sea