Healthy Mediterranean foods and micro plastic pollution
Mediterranean foods are famous for healthy diet. but lately according to a new study published, it would appear that plastic particles on the bed of the Mediterranean Sea are accumulating very quickly.
Most of plastic waste ends up in landfill, or in bodies of water such as seas, oceans or rivers. But so far it’s not completely clear what becomes of it after that.
The new study that’s been focusing on this plastic accumulation has discovered that the concentration on the sea floor of the Mediterranean has increased threefold since the year 2000.
Over recent years, scientists around the world have uncovered useful information into the movements of plastic and how it reacts to our sea environments.
Studies have revealed that plastic can become trapped in the deep ocean due to underwater avalanches where the plastic particles are deposited into deep sea trenches which act as traps.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/11/221123125118.htm
Scientists also discovered a highly concentrated area of micro plastics in the Mediterranean Sea in 2020 on the seafloor.
However a new team of researchers have begun to study micro plastic movements in the Mediterranean Sea, hailing from 2 different academic institutions, the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Denmark’s Aalborg University.
Focusing on aftereffects of plastic particles sinking to the sea bed
They are focusing in particular on sinking to the sea floor bed, and the aftereffects of such action. Sediment was collected from the Western Mediterranean Sea.
And particles as small as 11 micro metres we analysed with advanced imaging technology. As a result, the scientists were able to gather valuable data, and figure out important details regarding the accumulation of the small micro plastics in marine sediment, and how they altered after the fact.
The findings were that such micro plastics were preserved on the floor of the ocean once they settled there. Apparently the lack of erosion, oxygen or light were the likely cause as to why the micro plastics remained.
Patrizia Ziveri author of the study explained:
“The process of fragmentation takes place mostly in the beach sediments, on the sea surface or in the water column. Once deposited, degradation is minimal, so plastics from the 1960s remain on the seabed, leaving the signature of human pollution there.”
So according to a timeline of plastic pollution on the sea bed collated by scientists, the amount of micro plastics had increased three fold since 2000.
And the type and nature of the plastics in the study area seemed to indicate they were the product of worldwide plastic pollution between the years 1965 and 2000.
Another author of the study, Michael Grelaud explained:
“This has allowed us to see how, since the 1980s, but especially in the past two decades, the accumulation of polyethylene and polypropylene particles from packaging, bottles and food films has increased, as well as polyester from synthetic fibres in clothing fabrics.”
The research paper was published in Environmental Science and Technology.
Sauce: Autonomus University of Barcelona, sciencedaily
