Occurrence of microplastics in the Haima cold seep area of the South China Sea

Di Zhang; Jingxi Li; Peng Ju; Wei Cao; Fenghua Jiang; Chengjun Sun

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173072

Occurrence of microplastics in the Haima cold seep area of the South China Sea

Sci Total Environ. 2024 May 9:934:173072. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173072. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Di Zhang¹, Jingxi Li², Peng Ju¹, Wei Cao¹, Fenghua Jiang¹, Chengjun Sun³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology Development and Offshore Eco-Environment Conservation, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China.
² Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology Development and Offshore Eco-Environment Conservation, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China; College of Safety and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China. Electronic address: jxli@fio.org.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Analytical Technology Development and Offshore Eco-Environment Conservation, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao 266061, China; College of Safety and Environmental Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China; Qingdao National Laboratory of Marine Science and Technology, Laboratory of Marine Drugs and Biological Products, Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: csun@fio.org.cn.

PMID: 38734093
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173072

Abstract

The pollution of deep-sea microplastics has received increasing attention. As a special ecosystem in the deep sea, the cold seep area is of great significance for studying the distribution of microplastics in the deep sea. In this work, the distribution and characteristics of microplastics in seawater, sediments, and shellfish in the Haima cold seep area and the correlation between the characteristics of microplastics in different media and the type of media were studied. Microplastics were found in all three media. The abundance of microplastics in different samples from the Haima cold seep area ranged 1.8-3.8 items/L for the seawater, 11.47-96.8 items/kg (d.w.) for the surface sediments, and 0-5 items/individual (0-0.714 items/g) for the shellfish. The amount of microplastics ingested by shellfish varied among different species. The microplastics in these three media were mainly fibrous, dark-colored, small-sized rayon, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE). In the correlation analysis of microplastic characteristics among the three media, it was found that the characteristics of microplastics in different media in the same area were closely related, and each pair of variables showed a significant positive correlation (P ≤ 0.05). The distinctive geographical conditions would accelerate the interchange of microplastics among various media. Principal component analysis showed that habitat contribute to microplastic feature differences in shellfish. Differences in correlation were observed between the characteristics of shellfish microplastics in different regions and the characteristics of microplastics in surrounding seawater and sediments.

Keywords: Haima cold seep; Microplastics; Occurrence; Shellfish.