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Microplastics in sea-surface waters surrounding Sweden sampled by manta trawl and in-situ pump
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Researchers sampled microplastics from sea-surface waters surrounding Sweden using both manta trawls and in-situ pumps at 12 locations, finding that pump samples consistently detected higher concentrations than trawl samples and that fibers were present in all samples with the highest concentrations on the west coast.
Microplastics were sampled in open surface waters by using a manta trawl and an in-situ filtering pump. A total of 24 trawl samples and 11 pump samples were taken at 12 locations around Sweden. Overall, the concentration of microplastic particles was higher in pump samples compared to trawl samples. The median microplastic particle concentration was 0.04 particles per m for manta trawl samples and 0.10 particles per m in pump samples taken with a mesh size of 0.3 mm. The highest concentrations were recorded on the west coast of Sweden. Fibers were found in all samples and were also more frequent in the pump samples. Even higher concentrations of fibers and particles were found on the 0.05 mm pump filters. Using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging the majority of the particles were identified as polyethylene followed by polypropylene.
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