Marine microplastics analysis and their transport in the water column of the Canary Islands region

Plastic debris has become one of the most prolific and dominant pollutants. Due to its high resistance and permanence, combined with its exposure to various processes in the ocean, plastic debris undergoes fragmentation and degradation. This causes it to change its original properties and be transported long distances (Lindeque et al., 2020; Van Sebille et al., 2020; Veerasingam et al., 2021). In particular, there is a high accumulation of microplastics in the Canary Islands due to its geographical location and physical processes in the region. However, the difficulty of collecting samples in deep waters and the complexity of determining microparticles pose certain limitations to their evaluation (Li et al., 2023). Accordingly, this study has analyzed microplastics in the water column of the Canary region from 50 m to 1200 m depth. For this purpose, their abundance was estimated and the composition of microplastics (larger than 100 µm) was determined using Fourier Transform Infrared microscopy (µFTIR). Furthermore, the distribution data were related to the transport dynamics of the region. The microplastics samples were collected during two oceanographic cruises, one in April 2021 and the other in February 2022. Although fragments were the most abundant microplastics in 2021, fibers were more abundant in 2022. In terms of composition, the fragments were primarily composed of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PUR) and polyethylene (PE), found at almost all sampled depths. In addition, in the case of fibers, polyester stands out, which has been found from 50 m to 1100 m depth. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559652/document