1. AARHUS UNIVERSITY Department of Bioscience 24th KIMO Conference, October 4, 2014 Microplastic - a neglected waste fraction Jakob Strand

2. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Humans have through all times set their marks on their surroundings – and also by leaving garbage behind Today the amounts and how widespread waste is in a global perspective without comparisons to previous times - a clear marker for the ANTHROPOCENE age

3. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand

4. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Huge amounts have during the last century been delivered to the sea -and litter is today regarded as a global pollution problem. Marine litter consist mainly of different persistent plastic materials, but also of other types of man-made solid waste, i.e. metal, glass, rubber, textiles, paper and machined wood. both as large items and tiny microscopic particles: - Washed ashore and deposited on the coasts, - Floating in water column in surface and deeper waters, - Deposited on the sea floor and into sediments, - Accumulated in marine organisms. Litter in the sea – is it really an environmental problem ? Environmental concerns: -Aesthetically undesirable in ”clean” nature -Accumulation in food webs and harmful impact on marine organisms. -Source (and vector) to toxic pollutants in the sea.

5. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Land-based sources: -Recreational activities at e.g. shorelines, -Poor waste handling at e.g. dumpsites, in cities and agriculture, -Pellet losses during production and transport, -Airborne litter and dust, -Freshwater run-off and effluents and rivers, -Extreme weather events, e.g. floodings and hurricanes and from sea-based sources: - e.g. ship traffic, fishery, recreational activities and long-range transport with ocean currents - even between continents The main sources to litter in the sea - and also to the deep sea.

6. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Skagerrak - an important deposition area for the North sea Nordic monitoring of beached litter have shown that the largest amounts generally occur at the Swedish and Danish west coasts OSPAR + MARLIN data 2002 - 2012 OSPAR QSR 2000

7. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand But... are macrolitter in the sea and washed ashore only the top of the iceberg ? Where does the huge amounts of litter go as time goes by ? Deposition on seafloor, fragmentation, degradation

8. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Primary microplastic (manufactured particles): - Resin pellets for plastic production and maintenance, - Cosmetics and other personal care products, - Industrial sandblasting products. Secondary microplastic: Fragmentation of macrolitter from land- and sea-based sources Caused by wheathering/erosion of macrolitter into small pieces - like rocks that become sand, silt and clay by time Mikroplastic – a ”new” issue Microscopic particles; <5mm micro- (or even nano-)scales Secondary microplastic, and not primary microplastic, is often regarded as the dominating contributor to microplastic in the sea. However, local conditions, e.g. due to pellet loss from industry or effluents for WWTPs, can in some cases be an important source to microplastics.

9. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Personal care products as source to microplastic Example: 0.3 – 10.5% primary microplastic particles found in some products selected by DR (national TV) from the presence of polyethylene in product declarations.

10. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Increasing amounts of microplastic in the sea seems to reflect the increasing global plastic production Microplastid deposited in sediments in different deposited layers in the southern North Sea (Claessens et al. 2011) Microplasticfloating in water column in the Northeast Atlantic detected with Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR). (Thompson et al. 2004)

11. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Microplastics are spread into all parts of the ecosystem Figure from Wright et al. (2013) Both in water column and at the sea floor with parallels to fate of natural occurring organic matter

12. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Benthic fauna E.g. microplastic (mainly fibres) was found in 83% of Norwegian lobsters in Scotland (Murray&Cowie 2012) - also found in e.g. mussels, brittle stars etc. Fish ~30% of fish (herring and whiting) from the inner Danish waters had ingested mikroplastics (Sørensen et al 2013). ~10% of cod from the Baltic Sea contained larger plastic items in their stomacs (Fricke, pers. comm). Litter, including microplastics, is taken up by marine organisms Marine birds and mammals ~55% of fulmars (seabird) from Skagerrak 2007- 2011 contained >0.1 g plastic in their stomachs (van Franeker/OSPAR 2013). - and even found in feces from seals at Antarctica (Eriksson & Burton 2003). Another impact is entanglement of wildlife e.g. 5-20% of northern gannets found dead in the southern North Sea (TMAP 2009) Photo: Kresten Hansen

13. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Mussels and fish as indicators for uptake of microplastic Comparing microplastic in water and organisms at 2 sites at Copenhagen. Mean densities: 0.3 – 2.5 particles per individual (analysed 2-3 pools per species). Results from fra student project (Agersnap 2013) Results indicated a high BioAccumulation Factor (BAF) for microplastics in blue mussels: BAF = 25000 - 40000

14. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Sediments and microplastics Results of the first survey in 2013 on microplastic particles in Danish waters Sampling was coordinated with the national contaminant monitoring in Denmark Particles were found in all samples in the range of 57 - 3622 particles pr kg DW - and fibres were dominating in most samples

15. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand One main results: Normalisation to matter does matter ! Normalisation to adequate sediment characters i.e. %TOC and <63 µm fraction can reduce the variability caused by natural heterogeneity between samples, and increase the power of identifying more or less affected areas. These results supports that microplastic particles will accumulate in sedimentary depositional areas – i.e. with parallels to organic pollutants sorped to organic materials.

16. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Positive correlations were also established to contaminants Positive correlations were also established to especially PAHs - and to lesser extent to alkylphenols and phthalates in sediments, It can probably due to co-variation with sources and TOC, - and may not be due to chemical extraction of the microplastic particles. TBT in paint flakes can be one exception !

17. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Experience with FT-IR identification of polymer materials in some selected microplastic particles 76.6% match with acrylic polymer material Thin fibres can only be identified with FT-IR coupled to microscope Results: 5 different polymers were identified in 10 representative isolated particles characterised as surely synthetic during examination of the samples were also identified as synthetic polymers. However, most of 10 other selected particles characterised as “doubtful” could not be matched with synthetic materials in our FT-IR database supporting that they most probably were of natural origin. All data for so- called doubtful particles were therefore eliminated from the data analyses.

18. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand EPS-plast4’åø3oli8 Akrylplast Bioplast EPS-plast Epoxyplast EVA-plast HDPE-plast LDPE-plast Melamin-plast Neopren Nylon Polyethylen Polystyrene PET-plast Polyamid Polyester Polycarbonat Polyethersulfon Polystyren Polytetrafluorethylen Polyurethan Polyvinylchlorid Super Absorbent Polymer Teflon Ureaplast Vinylester ABS-plast MATERIALS /POLYMERS EPS-plast Softeners Pigments Flame retardants UV-stabilizators Antioxidants Co-polymerer Antistatic agents Antibacterial agents Heat-StabilisatorsLubricants Fragrances Fillers/Extenders Impact Modifiers Blowing Agents ADDITIVES EPS-plast Environmental factors PLASTIC in the environment is not just one thing – but as group does it consist of many types of materials and constituents Leakage of additives Size of particles Structure of particles Fragmentation/degradation/persistence Absorption of contaminants from surroundings Density Amounts and concentrations All these aspects should be considered during both research, risk assessments and communication on fate and impact of plastic in the environment

19. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand So... some of the main questions in regard to microplastics: What are the most important sources ? What type of material does the microplastic consist of ? How much is there in the oceans today ? Where does it go as time goes by ? Are the larger size fractions only the top of iceberg ? To what extent will it pose a threat to environment and/or humans ? Does it really matter – or is microplastic just filling up as matter in the sea ?

20. AARHUS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF BIOSCIENCE October 4, 2014 Jakob Strand Tjörn, Sweden, 2006 “Souvenirs” from the sea - or just “junk” on the beach ?