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Monitoring environmental accumulation
Summary
This book chapter examines the challenges of monitoring environmental accumulation of microplastics, reviewing the factors — including polymer type, meteorology, hydrology, and sedimentology — that drive their spatially heterogeneous distribution across multiple environmental sinks. The authors highlight how inconsistent methodologies and reporting conventions undermine cross-study comparisons and discuss the trade-offs among various sampling strategies.
It is widely accepted that the distribution of microplastics is affected by multiple factors such as polymer type and construction, meteorology, hydrology, circulation, sedimentology, the action of biota and other factors discussed in the previous chapters. Variation in these factors results in a complex and highly spatially heterogeneous distribution of microplastics across multiple temporary environmental sinks. Understanding the geographical spread of these at-risk zones may assist in the management of microplastic inputs and their effects. However, while many measures for the recovery and identification of microplastics are available, drawing comparisons between locations is made increasingly difficult by ‘consistently inconsistent’ methodologies and reporting conventions which present challenges to environmental managers, researchers and regulators alike. In this chapter, we explore the benefits and drawbacks of multiple sampling strategies and discuss why one size does not yet fit all.