Deep-sea trench in the Pacific Ocean turns into a “plastic trap”
Together with colleagues from the Alfred Wegener Institute and the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute, Senckenberg scientists Serena Abel and Angelika Brandt examined sediment samples from the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench for the presence of microplastics. In their study, which was recently published in the scientific journal “Environmental Pollution,” the researchers show that one kilogram of sediment contains between 14 and 209 microplastic particles. Overall, the team was able to document 15 different types of plastics in the samples.
Humans produce more than 400 million tons of plastic each year – and the negative side effects of this are apparent in the form of plastic islands in the oceans and plastic waste in rivers, forests, and along roadsides. “Plastic remains can even be found in the deepest oceans,” explains Serena Abel of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfur
We know that tons of plastic waste washes into the ocean each year, but what we don’t know all that much about is what happens to it once it gets there. A new study as shone a light on the role deep-sea trenches can play in the movement of plastic pollution, revealing how they can act as traps, accumulating large amounts of microplastic particles and holding them there.
The reason plastic pollution is so hard to trace through the marine environment is because the forces of the ocean degrade and tear apart the pieces until they become what are known as microplastics, tiny fragments measuring less than 5 mm in size. While these are inherently difficult to monitor as they move through the ocean, recent studies have shown how underwater avalanches can drive microplastics into the deep, and how hotspots can develop on the seafloor.
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