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Exploring carbon content variation in microplastics sequestrated from seawater to sediment in the Haima cold seep area
Summary
Sampling the Haima cold seep in the South China Sea, researchers found that microplastic abundance in the water column increased with methane seepage strength, while the carbon content of microplastics varied with depth and seepage activity. The study suggests that deep-sea cold seeps act as sinks for microplastics and that microbial communities in these oxygen-poor environments may process carbon from plastic particles in ways not yet well understood.
In the decades since plastic has become widely used, deep-sea areas, specifically cold seeps, have developed into plastic sinks. Cold seeps contain clean energy natural gas hydrates and act as a barrier reducing methane migration to the upper water column. However, the impacts of microplastics (MPs) on the carbon content in the cold seep remain unclear. In this study, we explored spatial changes in the MPs' carbon content (MPC) selecting the Haima cold seep (HCS) as the study area. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) For active seepage areas, the mass abundance of the MPs increases with the methane seepage strength in all water columns and sediment of strong seepage areas. It decreases with the seepage strength in the sediment cores in other areas. (2)The MPC is positively correlated with the depth of the water column in the non-seepage area, while it is negatively correlated in the sediment core. (3) The surface roughness of the MPs was greater in the middle of the water column and the sediment core at ROV1. In the high-pressure and oligotrophic cold seep, the amount and method of microbial utilization of carbon from the MPs deserve greater attention.