Media caption What happens to microplastics in the ocean? Scientists have identified the highest levels of microplastics ever recorded on the seafloor.
The contamination was found in sediments pulled from the bottom of the Mediterranean, near Italy.
The analysis, led by the University of Manchester, found up to 1.9 million plastic pieces per square meter.
These items are likely included fibers from clothing and other synthetic textiles, and tiny fragments from larger objects that had broken down over time.
The researchers’ investigations lead them to believe that microplastics (smaller than 1mm) are being concentrated in specific locations on the ocean floor by powerful bottom currents.
“These currents build what are called drift deposits; think of underwater sand dunes,” explained Dr Ian Kane, who fronted the international team .
“They can be tens of kilometers long and hundreds of meters high. They are among the largest sediment accumulations on Earth. They’re made predominantly of very fine silt, so it’s intuitive to expect microplastics will be found within them, “he told BBC News.
It’s been calculated that something in the order of four to a million tonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans every year, mostly through rivers.
Media headlines have focussed on the great aggregations of debris that float in gears or wash up with the tides on coastlines.
But this visible trash is thought to represent just 1% of the marine plastic budget. The exact whereabouts of the other % is unknown.
Some of it has almost certainly been consumed by sea creatures, but perhaps the much larger proportion has fragmented and simply sunk.
Dr Kane’s team has already shown that deep-sea trenches and ocean canyons can have high concentrations of microplastics in their sediments.
Indeed, water tank simulations run by the group have demonstrated just how efficiently flows of mud, sand and silt of the type occurring in canyons will entrain and move fibers to even greater depths.
“A single one of these underwater avalanches (‘turbidity currents’) can transport tremendous volumes of sediment for s of kilometers across the ocean floor, “said Dr Florian Pohl from Durham University.
“We’re just starting to understand from recent laboratory experiments how these flows transport and bury microplastics.”
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