Plastic Sea: Global Ocean Study measures thousands of microParticles in Mariana Pit | Science

Like plastic air. The key to modern societies is that it is everywhere. But at the end of its useful life, the sun, the wind and the erosion conceals it, Ends in the sea. His alleged float, strengthened by some studies, believed that the largest problem was on the surface. But a new writing has been published Nature To show that microplastics are already ubiquitous, it has supported hundreds of sample stations placed at different depths: on the beaches, on the high seas, from the surface to the sea. Researchers have found that the carbon in these polymers is included in the carbon cycle of natural origin, which is still unable to imagine.

Studies made on existence Microplastic in the seas. Now, a group of four continents have collected more than 1,200 of these works to review their results and complete their own research with them. In the results they found great diversity, but most of the tasks were carried out with surface drag networks and very few people investigated the presence of plastic across the water column. What did they do with about 2,000 stations at different depths that have been collected for a decade for over a decade. Therefore they can verify their samples to predict how much plastic is in the sea and it is accumulated.

“We will classify microplastics into two categories, small (1–100 μm) and large (100–5000 µm) and small microplastics are numerically higher,” said Shie Zao, a researcher of Japanese Agency of Sea and Earth Technology. Values ​​(µm) represent micrometers or microme, a thousands of millimeter. “Due to their small size, young children sink very slowly and distribute the water column more the same in the water column compared to the machoplastic and large microplastic,” he said. In fact, they have noted that the largest pieces accumulate on the surface and in the seas funds, but in small quantities are less affected by sea physical obstacles. “As a result, the small microplastics have been suspended for a long time in the water column, which increases the likelihood of biological exposure,” Zao completed.

According to the sea, the authors have found great diversity. But the continental platforms stand out, where they measure the middle of 500 cells per cubic meter (m³) and 30 times higher than the high seas (16/m³). They consider it logically because they are close to the roots of the problem. However, as the funds grow depth, the radical decrease in the coast is 1,000 times a radical decrease. “A significant decrease in microplastics may be due to high mineral and biological productivity in coastal waters, which accelerates the sinking of extra microplastics,” Zao said. “Diets, which are rich in coastal environmental systems, produce silicius fruits (cell layers), which usually appear on the surface of microplastics, which will increase their ballast and make them easier to sink.” It and other processes, such as the rainfall of the calcite, conclude that “suitable for vertical transport of microplastics in coastal waters”.

On high seas, this study ensures the accumulation of large amounts of microplastics in sea turns. In these large rotary currents, such as the subtropical turn of the North Pacific or the southern Atlantic, many hundreds of plastic pieces per cubic meter. But it is medium, some stations collect more than 10,000, although they do not produce Called plastic islands.

“Plastic islands do not exist. If we go to the convergence areas of the subtropical islands where there are these popular islands, you can’t see anything. Perhaps there are more bottles, bags and other plastics with more float, but you can’t see the accumulated plastics,” said Patricia Willarybian Jayem, Plaustic. (Sweden). “The situation is as bad as no exaggeration,” he said. In addition, these metaphors have diverted the conversation, he said. “Plastics are made of dangerous fossil and chemical fuels (even from fossil fuels). And from scientific (systemic) perspective, to fix its product by the microplastic and plastic of all sizes,” said Villarubia.

The existence at different depths does not follow progress like viewing on the shore. Therefore, they have discovered 1,100 cells/m³ between 100 meters (until the act of reaching solar radiation) and in the inary -lined line from the north to the south of the 270 meters at the north of Atlantic. At the beginning of the Mariana Pit in Pacific, more than 2,500 microplastics in the Arctic are measured in the Arctic and 13,500 to 6,800 meters deep. In this irregular distribution of plastic, the pickenocklines picked up, the layers of the water column with a greater density due to temperature, the more density of the salt or the combination of both. Large microplastics can be trapped in these areas. 205 pieces per cubic meter as medium in the entire water column.

This work found polymers with 56 different formulations. Although the industry has created hundreds of ways to group monomers (molecules), most of the microplastics are in the sea, such as polyethylene or polystyrene. There may be approximately presence in these long chemical chains 16,000 different chemicalsBut the carbon of the fossil origin, has a repeated chemical element. The depths study found that up to 5% of the current carbon already had plastic origin.

Aaron Stubins Research the carbon cycle at the Northeast University (United States). The circulation of this element is in the base of life and can change the plastic. “The situation is similar to human health: we have quickly found plastics In our blood, the brain And in newborns. However, we are not yet aware of the health issues we expose them, ”he said,” We have also found a senior author of the study published in nature Stubs. In the oceans, we have found an extension of plastics. When we learn about its prevalence, we will begin to consider its influence on the life and carbon cycle in the sea, “he said. His laboratory has already received financing to study it.

In a study published in 2024, stubins and other colleagues analyzed this effect with sea ice. “The term represents organic carbon cells produced by life on the surface of the sea and sinks into the depths of the sea, transport carbon to depths and moves away from the atmosphere,” he explained. But when the plastic source is mixed, it sinks slowly than the UN contaminated. “Therefore, the inclusion of plastic in marine ice reduces carbon flow towards sea depths, which reduces the ability of the sea to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and replace the climate change caused by humans.”

The authors have already encrypted another impact that complicates the life of scientists. The main dating tool of the past, archaeological deposits or natural processes carbon -14. But the contribution of plastic carbon changes the ratio of this radioactive element, which is confused for up to 400 years.

Andres Kozar recalls, who studied plastic pollution at the University of Cadiz, “Over the years, the narrative about sea pollution through plastics has mainly focused on the widespread cumulative areas formed on the surface of beaches and oceans.” But this new task, “expands our understanding on the problem, certainly certify that the plastic headache ends on the sea surface.”

Its burden on deep marine ecosystems is now based on data: “The floating microplastics are not floating, but the sea is infiltrating, reaching a depth of more than 2,000 meters.