Plastic Pollution in the Deep Sea: A Geological Perspective
Boulder, Colo., USA: A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and
sedimentary environments. Authors I.A. Kane of the Univ. of Manchester and
A. Fildani of the Deep Time Institute write that “Environmental pollution
caused by uncontrolled human activity is occurring on a vast and
unprecedented scale around the globe. Of the diverse forms of anthropogenic
pollution, the release of plastic into nature, and particularly the oceans,
is one of the most recent and visible effects.”
The authors cite multiple studies, including one in the May issue by
Guangfa Zhong and Xiaotong Peng, discussed in a previous GSA press release
(
https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/pr/2021/21-04.aspx
) when it was published online ahead of print (26 Jan. 2021). Zhong and
Peng were surprised to find plastic waste in a deep-sea submarine canyon
located in the northwestern South China Sea.
“Plastic is generally considered to be the dominant component of marine
litter, due to its durability and the large volume produced,” write Kane
and Fildani. “Nano- and microplastics are a particularly insidious form of
anthropogenic pollutant: tiny fragments and fibers may be invisible to the
naked eye, but they are ingested with the food and water we consume and
absorbed into the flesh of organisms.”
One of their vital questions is, “If some plastics can survive for >1000
years in terrestrial environments, how long do they last in ocean trenches
that are kilometers deep, dark, cold, and at high pressure? How long does
it take microplastic to break down into microplastics and nanoplastics in
the deep sea?”
“While it is incumbent on policy makers to take action now to protect the
oceans from further harm, we recognize the roles that geoscientists can
play,” write Kane and Fildani. That includes using their deep-time
perspective to address the societal challenges, their understanding of the
present-day distribution on the seafloor and in the sedimentary record,
using geoscience techniques to record the downstream effects of mitigation
efforts, and to predict the future of seafloor plastics.
In summary, they write, “We understand … the transient nature of the
stratigraphic record and its surprising preservation, and the unique
geochemical environments found in deep-sea sediments. Our source-to-sink
approach to elucidate land-to-sea linkages can identify the sources and
pathways that plastics take while traversing natural habitats and identify
the context in which they are ultimately sequestered, and the ecosystems
they affect. This will happen by working closely with oceanographers,
biologists, chemists, and others tackling the global pollution problem.”
FEATURED ARTICLE
Anthropogenic pollution in deep-marine sedimentary systems—A geological
perspective on the plastic problem
I.A. Kane; A. Fildani:
Geology, v. 49, p. 607–608, https://doi.org/10.1130/focus052021.1.
You can access the current issue of GEOLOGY at
https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology/issue
. Representatives of the media may obtain complimentary articles by
contacting Kea Giles at the e-mail address above. Please discuss articles
of interest with the authors before publishing stories on their work, and
please make reference to GEOLOGY in articles published. Non-media requests
for articles may be directed to GSA Sales and Service,
gsaservice@geosociety.org.
https://www.geosociety.org
# # #