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Temporal patterns of plastic contamination in surface waters at the SS Yongala shipwreck, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
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Researchers conducted three years of monthly plastic sampling at the SS Yongala shipwreck site on the Great Barrier Reef, detecting plastic contamination in virtually every sample and finding that wind speed, salinity, and river discharge — but not current speed — drove fluctuations in microplastic concentrations, with no significant long-term trend.
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous within the marine environment, including surface waters, water column and benthic sediments. Marine plastic contamination is expected to increase if future projections of increased plastic production eventuate. Conversely, national and international efforts are aiming to reduce marine plastic contamination. In this context, scientists, managers and the general public are increasingly interested in understanding the status and temporal trends of plastic contamination in the marine environment. Presented here is the first temporal assessment of plastic contamination in surface waters of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. Specifically, duplicate surface seawater samples (n = 66) were collected at the SS Yongala shipwreck (Central GBR) monthly from September 2016 to September 2019 and analysed for plastic presence and abundance. The processing workflow involved density separation, followed by filtration, visual identification and sizing of putative plastics using stereomicroscopy, and chemical characterisation using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A total of 533 plastic items were identified across all tows, consisting of macro-, meso- and microplastic fragments and fibres, with polypropylene and polyethylene being the most common polymers. Plastic contamination was detected in every replicate tow, bar one. Plastic concentrations fluctuated and spiked every three months, although contamination did not significantly alter across the three-year period. Wind speed, salinity and river discharge volume, but not surface current speed nor sea surface temperature, had a significant influence on the levels of plastic contamination. This study reveals, for the first time, the chronic presence of plastic debris in the surface waters of the GBR highlighting the need for long-term and on-going monitoring of the marine environment for plastic contamination.
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Researchers conducted daily sampling of plastic debris on a remote Maldives island over seven consecutive days and found high spatial and temporal variability in plastic abundance despite the island's remoteness, warning that single-snapshot surveys can produce biased estimates and that future monitoring programs must account for natural fluctuations in deposition.
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Researchers assessed microplastic occurrence, abundance, and characteristics in coral, seawater, and sediment samples from two reef sites in the Gulf of Thailand, detecting microplastics in all coral samples at concentrations ranging from 0.24 to 2.60 particles per gram and finding spatial variability across reef species and sites.
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Researchers found microplastics in coral reef fish larvae collected from the Great Barrier Reef, with particles concentrated by the same oceanographic processes that aggregate zooplankton prey. The similarity in size between microplastics and natural prey items increases the likelihood of accidental ingestion by larvae.
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Sediment cores from a protected coral reef nature reserve in China's Leizhou Peninsula showed microplastics distributed throughout all depths down to 30 cm, averaging 119 particles/kg and dominated by polyethylene and polypropylene fibers. The penetration of microplastics into deep sediment layers indicates long-term persistence in the marine environment and poses chronic exposure risks to benthic organisms in sensitive reef ecosystems.
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