Abundance, distribution and characteristics of microplastics in the North and South Atlantic Ocean

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  • Plastics_accepted

    Accepted author manuscript, 4.77 MB, PDF document

    Embargo ends: 9/11/25

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  • Regitze Andersen
    Nordic Ocean Watch Denmark, Copenhagen.
  • Astrid Louise Harsaae
    Nordic Ocean Watch Denmark, Copenhagen.
  • Antonia kellner
    Nordic Ocean Watch Denmark, Copenhagen.
  • Abi Smyth
  • Tia Amalie Rosenkrantz Westermann
    Aarhus University
  • Mattias Green
  • Jes Vollertsen
    Aalborg University
  • Kristian Syberg
    Roskilde University
  • Claudia Lorenz
    Aalborg University
Microplastics are both pervasive in the marine environment and highly detrimental to it. In this study, we investigate the abundance, distribution, and characteristics of microplastics in surface waters on a transect spanning 6 major ocean current regions in the Atlantic Ocean from Scheveningen (the Netherlands) to Montevideo (Uruguay). 50 surface trawls were completed with a manta net (mesh 500 µm, cod 333 µm) and particles were analyzed in the laboratory including polymer type identification with ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. An overall abundance of 0.011 items/m³ was found with no significant difference between microplastic abundance and distance to coast. The dominant polymer types were HD-PE (63.5 %) and PP (28.3 %), shape was fragments (88.6 %), and color was white (59.1 %). We conclude that this study's findings reaffirm the widespread presence of microplastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean, contributing data from consistently under-sampled regions such as the South Atlantic.
Original languageEnglish
Article number117217
JournalMarine Pollution Bulletin
Early online date9 Nov 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 9 Nov 2024
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