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Marine plastics alter the organic matter composition of the air-sea boundary layer, with influences on CO2 exchange: a large-scale analysis method to explore future ocean scenarios
Summary
This mesocosm study used large-scale 3 m3 seawater tanks to investigate how microplastic contamination affects microbial organic matter dynamics at the sea-surface microlayer and its implications for CO2 exchange with the atmosphere. Microplastics increased both microbial biomass production and enrichment of particulate carbohydrates and proteins at the sea surface. This altered biogenic composition resulted in a 3% reduction in dissolved CO2 in the underlying water, suggesting microplastic pollution has direct and indirect effects on the marine carbon cycle.
Microplastics are substrates for microbial activity and can influence biomass production. This has potentially important implications at the sea-surface microlayer, the marine boundary layer that controls gas exchange with the atmosphere and where biologically produced organic compounds can accumulate. In the present study, we used large scale mesocosms (filled with 3 m3 of seawater) to simulate future ocean scenarios. We explored microbial organic matter dynamics in the sea-surface microlayer in the presence and absence of microplastic contamination of the underlying water. Our study shows that microplastics increased both biomass production and enrichment of particulate carbohydrates and proteins in the sea-surface microlayer. Importantly, this resulted in a 3% reduction in the concentration of dissolved CO2 in the underlying water. This reduction suggests direct and indirect impacts of microplastic pollution on the marine uptake of CO2, by modifying the biogenic composition of the sea’s boundary layer with the atmosphere.