1. Fig. 1 DMS concentration in plastic debris headspace.
DMS concentration in plastic debris headspace. (A) DMS was not detected on any of the virgin plastic samples tested (n = 10 samples each for HDPE, LDPE, and PP, N = 30 total). (B) DMS was detected on every plastic sample after marine exposure (n = 12 bags of each plastic type; each bag subsampled five times). Box plots illustrate DMS concentrations on marine-seasoned plastic of each plastic type across sites (HPDE = 8.31 ± 2.25 μg of DMS per gram of plastic; LDPE = 8.90 ± 1.34 μg of DMS per gram of plastic; PP = 9.56 ± 2.33 μg of DMS per gram of plastic). Points represent each bag’s average DMS quantification; the error bars represent the SE of the five subsamples of each bag. Site averages by plastic type are as follows: for BML, x̄HDPE = ± 2.41 μg g−1, x̄LDPE = ± 1.65 μg g−1, and x̄PP = 4.99 ± 0.98 μg g−1; for HMS, x̄HDPE = 3.16 ± 1.07 μg g−1, x̄LDPE = 6.05 ± 1.39 μg g−1, and x̄PP = ± 2.33 μg g−1.
Matthew S. Savoca et al. Sci Adv 2016;2:e
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