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How does the tidal cycle influence the estuarine dynamics of microplastics?

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2024 6 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Ravena Santiago Alves, Victória Maria Carneiro dos Santos, Rebeca Amon Moreira, Gabriel Chrystian Lima de Alcantara, Gabriel Chrystian Lima de Alcantara, Emanuelle Ribeiro Lima, Bárbara Pereira Paiva, Carlos Eduardo Peres Teixeira, Vasco Stascxak Neto, Alejandro Pedro Ayala, David Chelazzi, Johnny Peter Macedo Feitosa, Marcelo de Oliveira Soares, Tommaso Giarrizzo, Michael Barbosa Viana

Summary

Researchers tracked how tidal cycles influence the movement and distribution of microplastics within estuaries, finding that tidal dynamics play a major role in concentrating or dispersing particles across intertidal zones. The study provides a framework for understanding microplastic transport in tidal environments.

Study Type Environmental

Estuaries are the main pathway for the microplastics (MPs) to enter into the oceans. However, factors that drive river-sea transport of MPs are not yet fully understood. Therefore, our research investigated the influence of the tidal cycle on the abundance and characteristics of MPs in an urban estuary, through high-frequency sampling (every 2-3 h) using a plankton net (120 μm mesh size) in two seasons (rainy and dry seasons). The results showed that the abundance of MPs decreased during the ebb tide and increased during the flood tide. A positive correlation was found between MP abundance and water height in both seasons. The shapes and colors of MPs varied significantly throughout the tidal cycle. The results show that tides are key agents in the transfer of MPs and cannot be neglected in models of the global contribution of plastic pollution from rivers to oceans.

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