Article
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Tier 2
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Original research — experimental, observational, or case-control study. Direct primary evidence.
Environmental Sources
Marine & Wildlife
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Exponential increase of plastic burial in mangrove sediments as a major plastic sink
Science Advances2020
284 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 45
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Cecilia Martin,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Cecilia Martin,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Cecilia Martin,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Cecilia Martin,
Cecilia Martin,
Cecilia Martin,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Hanan Almahasheer,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Pere Masqué
Cecilia Martin,
Cecilia Martin,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Cecilia Martin,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Cecilia Martin,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Letizia Valluzzi,
Cecilia Martin,
Pere Masqué
Cecilia Martin,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Cecilia Martin,
Pere Masqué
Cecilia Martin,
Michael Cusack,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Pere Masqué
Carlos M. Duarte,
Michael Cusack,
Michael Cusack,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Vincent Saderne,
Fadiyah M. Baalkhuyur,
Michael Cusack,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Pere Masqué
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Hanan Almahasheer,
Cecilia Martin,
Carlos M. Duarte,
P K Krishnakumar,
P K Krishnakumar,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Lotfi Rabaoui,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Lotfi Rabaoui,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Lotfi Rabaoui,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Lotfi Rabaoui,
Mohammed Qurban,
Ariane Arias‐Ortiz,
Pere Masqué
Lotfi Rabaoui,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Mohammed Qurban,
Mohammed Qurban,
Carlos M. Duarte,
Pere Masqué
Summary
This study demonstrated that mangrove sediments are accumulating plastic at an exponential rate, sequestering plastics efficiently due to high sediment accretion rates in these coastal forests. The finding positions mangroves as a major long-term plastic sink that may help explain why less plastic is found in ocean surface waters than is estimated to enter the sea.
Study Type
Environmental
Sequestration of plastics in sediments is considered the ultimate sink of marine plastic pollution that would justify unexpectedly low loads found in surface waters. Here, we demonstrate that mangroves, generally supporting high sediment accretion rates, efficiently sequester plastics in their sediments. To this end, we extracted microplastics from dated sediment cores of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf mangrove (<i>Avicennia marina</i>) forests along the Saudi Arabian coast. We found that microplastics <0.5 mm dominated in mangrove sediments, helping explain their scarcity, in surface waters. We estimate that 50 ± 30 and 110 ± 80 metric tons of plastic may have been buried since the 1930s in mangrove sediments across the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf, respectively. We observed an exponential increase in the plastic burial rate (8.5 ± 1.2% year<sup>-1</sup>) since the 1950s in line with the global plastic production increase, confirming mangrove sediments as long-term sinks for plastics.