Prevalence of microplastics in the marine waters of Qatar

Microplastics are firmly recognized as a ubiquitous and growing threat to marine biota and their associated marine habitats worldwide. The evidence of the prevalence of microplastics was documented for the first time in the marine waters of Qatar's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). An optimized an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2016-10, Vol.111 (1-2), p.260-267
Main Authors: Castillo, Azenith B., Al-Maslamani, Ibrahim, Obbard, Jeffrey Philip
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anthropogenic activities
cellophane
Chemical Fractionation - methods
Environmental Monitoring - methods
Extraction techniques
FTIR
habitats
infrared spectroscopy
Marine
Marine environment
Microplastics
Plankton
plastics
Plastics - analysis
Plastics - chemistry
polyamides
polyethylene
Polyethylene - analysis
Polymers - analysis
polymethylmethacrylate
polypropylenes
polystyrenes
Polystyrenes - analysis
Qatar
Qatar EEZ
Reproducibility of Results
seawater
Seawater - chemistry
shipping
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
styrene
Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis
water pollution
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Summary:Microplastics are firmly recognized as a ubiquitous and growing threat to marine biota and their associated marine habitats worldwide. The evidence of the prevalence of microplastics was documented for the first time in the marine waters of Qatar's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). An optimized and validated protocol was developed for the extraction of microplastics from plankton-rich seawater samples without loss of microplastic debris present and characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. In total 30 microplastic polymers have been identified with an average concentration of 0.71particlesm−3 (range 0–3particlesm−3). Polypropylene, low density polyethylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyamide, polymethyl methacrylate, cellophane, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymers were characterized with majority of the microplastics either granular shape, sizes ranging from 125μm to 1.82mm or fibrous with sizes from 150μm to 15.98mm. The microplastics are evident in areas where nearby anthropogenic activities, including oil-rig installations and shipping operations are present. •Extraction technique from plankton-rich seawater was validated and optimized.•Occurrence of MP was documented for the first time in marine waters of Qatar.•Thirty microplastic polymers were characterized including copolymer.•9 out of 30 microplastics were identified as polypropylene using ATR-FTIR.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.06.108