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Microplastics contaminate the deepest part of the world’s ocean

Geochemical Perspectives Letters 2018 529 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 50 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

M. Chen, Xiaotong Peng Shuangyun Bai, S. Dasgupta, S. Dasgupta, Shuangyun Bai, S. Dasgupta, Xiaotong Peng Xiaotong Peng M. Chen, Xiaotong Peng Mengran Du, M. Chen, Hongzhou Xu, Shuangyun Bai, Hongzhou Xu, S. Chen, S. Chen, Shuangyun Bai, S. Chen, Hongzhou Xu, S. Dasgupta, Hongzhou Xu, Shuangyun Bai, M. Chen, Shuangyun Bai, Kaiwen Ta, J. Li, S. Chen, Hongzhou Xu, S. Dasgupta, Mengran Du, J. Li, Kaiwen Ta, Kaiwen Ta, Mengran Du, Mengran Du, Hongzhou Xu, Kaiwen Ta, Mengran Du, Hongzhou Xu, J. Li, Kaiwen Ta, Guo Zhang, Xiaotong Peng Shuangyun Bai, Shuangyun Bai, Xiaotong Peng

Summary

Microplastic concentrations were measured in bottom water and sediments of the Mariana Trench, finding hadal bottom water concentrations of 2.06–13.51 pieces/L—several times higher than open ocean subsurface water—and sediment concentrations of 200–2,200 pieces/L. The study provides the first evidence that the world's deepest ocean environment is heavily contaminated with microplastics, likely through sinking and current-driven accumulation.

Study Type Environmental

Millions of metric tons of plastics are produced annually and transported from land to the oceans. Finding the fate of the plastic debris will help define the impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean. Here, we report the abundances of microplastic in the deepest part of the world's ocean. We found that microplastic abundances in hadal bottom waters range from 2.06 to 13.51 pieces per litre, several times higher than those in open ocean subsurface water. Moreover, microplastic abundances in hadal sediments of the Mariana Trench vary from 200 to 2200 pieces per litre, distinctly higher than those in most deep sea sediments. These results suggest that manmade plastics have contaminated the most remote and deepest places on the planet. The hadal zone is likely one of the largest sinks for microplastic debris on Earth, with unknown but potentially damaging impacts on this fragile ecosystem.

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