Global Garbage Newsletter for January 28, 2014 Marine litter (marine debris) and plastic pollution *** Jennifer L. Lavers, Alexander L. Bond, Ian Hutton, Plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes): Implications for fledgling body condition and the accumulation of plastic-derived chemicals, Environmental Pollution, Volume 187, April 2014, Pages 124-129, ISSN 0269-7491, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.12.020. (sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0269749113006532) Abstract: To provide much needed quantitative data on the lethal and sublethal effects of plastic pollution on marine wildlife, we sampled breast feathers and stomach contents from Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) fledglings in eastern Australia. Birds with high levels of ingested plastic exhibited reduced body condition and increased contaminant load (p < 0.05). More than 60% of fledglings exceed international targets for plastic ingestion by seabirds, with 16% of fledglings failing these targets after a single feeding (range: 0.13–3.21 g of plastic/feeding). As top predators, seabirds are considered sentinels of the marine environment. The amount of plastic ingested and corresponding damage to Flesh-footed Shearwater fledglings is the highest reported for any marine vertebrate, suggesting the condition of the Australian marine environment is poor. These findings help explain the ongoing decline of this species and are worrying in light of increasing levels of plastic pollution in our oceans. Keywords: Body condition; Flesh-footed Shearwater; Marine debris; Plastic ingestion; Trace metals Morgan Deroiné, Antoine Le Duigou, Yves-Marie Corre, Pierre-Yves Le Gac, Peter Davies, Guy César, Stéphane Bruzaud, Accelerated ageing of polylactide in aqueous environments: Comparative study between distilled water and seawater, Polymer Degradation and Stability, Available online 23 January 2014, ISSN 0141-3910, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.polymdegradstab.2014.01.020. (sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0141391014000226) Abstract: Pollution of nature by plastics is a major environmental problem and the challenge for the future is to manage the lifetime of polymers better. The aim of this study is to establish a baseline on degradation mechanism and degradation kinetics for lifetime prediction of polylactide (PLA) in a marine environment. The ageing of PLA was accelerated by raising temperature in distilled water, filtered and renewed seawater and natural seawater. Samples were immersed in distilled water for six months at different temperatures (25, 30, 40 and 50°C) in order to evaluate the influence of temperature on PLA degradation kinetics and to predict lifetime. Then, samples were immersed in seawater both in the laboratory and at sea, in order to compare the effects of environment, marine organisms and salt, on degradation. The different degradation steps were followed by gravimetry, tensile tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), steric exclusion chromatography (SEC) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In distilled water, accelerated ageing of PLA is complex with deviation from Fickian behaviour at higher temperature. Moreover, immersion in distilled water induces morphological changes, in particular holes, which are absent in seawater at 40°C for the same immersion time. Indeed, seawater has little impact on the diffusion kinetics but affects M∞ values, which are slightly lower compare to the distilled water uptake. Keywords: PLA; accelerated ageing; hydrothermal ageing; degradation Note to users: Accepted manuscripts are Articles in Press that have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of this journal. They have not yet been copy edited and/or formatted in the journal house style, and may not yet have the full ScienceDirect functionality, e.g., supplementary files may still need to be added, links to references may not resolve yet etc. The text could still change before final publication. Although accepted manuscripts do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI, as follows: author(s), article title, journal (year), DOI. Please consult the journals reference style for the exact appearance of these elements, abbreviation of journal names and use of punctuation. When the final article is assigned to an issue of the journal, the Article in Press version will be removed and the final version will appear in the associated published issue of the journal. The date the article was first made available online will be carried over. Marcus Schulz, Daniel Neumann, David M. Fleet, Michael Matthies, A multi-criteria evaluation system for marine litter pollution based on statistical analyses of OSPAR beach litter monitoring time series, Marine Environmental Research, Volume 92, December 2013, Pages 61-70, ISSN 0141-1136, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2013.08.013. (sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0141113613001475) Abstract: During the last decades, marine pollution with anthropogenic litter has become a worldwide major environmental concern. Standardized monitoring of litter since 2001 on 78 beaches selected within the framework of the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) has been used to identify temporal trends of marine litter. Based on statistical analyses of this dataset a two-part multi-criteria evaluation system for beach litter pollution of the North-East Atlantic and the North Sea is proposed. Canonical correlation analyses, linear regression analyses, and non-parametric analyses of variance were used to identify different temporal trends. A classification of beaches was derived from cluster analyses and served to define different states of beach quality according to abundances of 17 input variables. The evaluation system is easily applicable and relies on the above-mentioned classification and on significant temporal trends implied by significant rank correlations. Keywords: Marine litter; Canonical correlation analysis; Temporal trend; Cluster analysis; Classification system; Beach evaluation J.P.G.L. Frias, V. Otero, P. Sobral, Evidence of microplastics in samples of zooplankton from Portuguese coastal waters, Marine Environmental Research, Available online 13 January 2014, ISSN 0141-1136, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.01.001. (sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0141113614000099) Abstract: Records of high concentrations of plastic and microplastic marine debris floating in the ocean have led to investigate the presence of microplastics in samples of zooplankton from Portuguese coastal waters. Zooplankton samples collected at four offshore sites, in surveys conducted between 2002 and 2008, with three different sampling methods, were used in this preliminary study. A total of 152 samples were processed and microplastics were identified in 93 of them, corresponding to 61% of the total. Costa Vicentina, followed by Lisboa, were the regions with higher microplastic concentrations (0.036 and 0.033 no. m−3) and abundances (0.07 and 0.06 cm3 m−3), respectively. Microplastic: zooplankton ratios were also higher in these two regions, which is probably related to the proximity of densely populated areas and inputs from the Tejo and Sado river estuaries. Microplastics polymers were identified using Micro Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (μ-FTIR), as polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyacrylates (PA). The present work is the first report on the composition of microplastic particles collected with plankton nets in Portuguese coastal waters. Plankton surveys from regular monitoring campaigns conducted worldwide may be used to monitor plastic particles in the oceans and constitute an important and low cost tool to address marine litter within the scope of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC). Keywords: Microplastics; Plastic; Zooplankton; MSFD; FTIR; Portugal Note to users: Corrected proofs are Articles in Press that contain the authors corrections. Final citation details, e.g., volume/issue number, publication year and page numbers, still need to be added and the text might change before final publication. Although corrected proofs do not have all bibliographic details available yet, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI , as follows: author(s), article title, journal (year), DOI. Please consult the journals reference style for the exact appearance of these elements, abbreviation of journal names and use of punctuation. When the final article is assigned to an issue of the journal, the Article in Press version will be removed and the final version will appear in the associated published issue of the journal. The date the article was first made available online will be carried over. noordzee.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/20130909-Dagevos-etal-NLBeachLitterMonitoring-2002-2012-Final.pdf Dagevos, J.J., Hougee, J.A. van Franeker, B. Wenneker, W.M.G.M. van Loon and A. Oosterbaan, (2013). OSPAR Beach Litter Monitoring In the Netherlands; Update 2012. North Sea Foundation, Utrecht. unepmap.org/index.php?module=content2&catid=001019023 Current Openings Terms of Reference (ToR) Regional consultancy to support SEIS Project implementation Deadline: 29 January 2014 195.97.36.231/dbases/WebDocs/JobOpportunities/2014/ToR_SEISimplementation.doc
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 11:06:25 +0000
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