Sampling with Niskin bottles and microfiltration reveals a high prevalence of microfibers

Whitaker, Justine M.; Garza, Tristyn N.; Janosik, Alexis M.

doi:10.1016/j.limno.2019.125711

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Microfibers were the dominant type of microplastic from both seawater samples (97% microfibers) and snail tissue samples (93% microfibers) from Northwest Panhandle Florida and Central Florida, respectively. These results are similar to findings in several other studies both in waters surrounding Florida and other locations around the globe (e.g., Waite et al, 2018;Akindele et al, 2019;Whitaker et al, 2019). Sizes of microfibers from both seawater and snail tissue samples were similar, indicating that fibers are likely being consumed from the environment, transferred indirectly through trophic transfer from prey items of both Red-mouth rock shells and Crown conchs.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Microfragments in marine samples originate from the breakdown of larger pieces of plastic debris. Only a few microfragments (<3%) were isolated from snail and water samples, which is similar to findings of other studies (e.g., Waite et al, 2018;Akindele et al, 2019;Whitaker et al, 2019). Though it is not known how microplastics impact Red-mouth rock shells or Crown conchs, microplastic impacts have been demonstrated in several other organisms.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Visual identification was employed to differentiate plastics from other natural organic debris (algae, sediment, invertebrates, and plant material). To help ensure proper identification, each suspected microplastic was examined following methods of Whitaker et al (2019). Specifically, suspected microplastics were examined for cellular and organic structures, for even thickness of fibers, and homogenous color, according to Hidalgo-Ruz et al (2012).…”

Section: Quantification Of Microplasticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastics in Florida, United States: A Case Study of Quantification and Characterization With Intertidal Snails

Kleinschmidt

Janosik

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Concentrations of microplastics are increasing within the oceans, including waters surrounding Florida, United States. Miles of sandy beaches make the sunshine state a prime tourist destination leading to an increased amount of pollution along Florida coasts. Microplastics can cause damage to intertidal organisms, as well as causing issues up the food chain with biomagnification and seafood consumers, such as humans. Florida is also subject to hurricanes which often distribute sediments, filling the water column with previously settled microplastics. These factors make Florida a special case to review considering the state is affected heavily by hurricanes and tourism, which can contribute to microplastic concentrations in the Gulf of Mexico. The focus of this study was to quantify, characterize, and compare microplastics contamination in two predatory marine snail species from intertidal habitats in Florida, United States Ingestion results were also compared to microplastics contamination of water samples collected from the same locations. Red-mouth rock shell (Stramonita haemastoma, n = 30) and Crown conch (Melongena corona, n = 30) snails were collected from intertidal habitats in Florida and digested for microplastics quantification. Water samples were filtered and microplastics were quantified. 256 microplastics, of which 93% were microfibers and 7% were microfragments were isolated from snails (n = 60). Additionally, 67 microplastics were isolated from 8 L of seawater (8.375 microplastics/L), of which 97% were microfibers and 3% were microfragments. This is the first known study to demonstrate microplastics contamination of tissues in predatory marine intertidal snails. Marine intertidal snails may be good organisms for biomonitoring of microplastics in intertidal sandy habitats.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Quantification Of Microplasticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastics in Florida, United States: A Case Study of Quantification and Characterization With Intertidal Snails

Kleinschmidt

Janosik

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…The widespread contamination of microfibers in the environment is well documented and has fostered much research in recent years. Many studies, across environmental compartments, have reported microfibers as the most common anthropogenic microparticles in samples, including wastewater (Gies et al, 2018; Grbić et al, 2020), stormwater runoff (F. Liu et al, 2019; Piñon‐Colin et al, 2020), rivers (Avio et al, 2020; Warrack et al, 2017), lakes (Grbić et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2017; Whitaker et al, 2019), estuaries (Bessa et al, 2018; Bikker et al, 2020; Naidoo et al, 2020), marine waters (Barrows et al, 2018; Suaria et al, 2020), and wildlife (Athey et al, 2020; Kühn et al, 2020; Waddell et al, 2020; Xu et al, 2020). Recent studies have found that microfibers from urbanized environments may undergo long‐range atmospheric transport (Cai et al, 2017; Dris et al, 2016) to farmland (Klein & Fischer, 2019) and remote regions including the Arctic (Athey et al, 2020; Huntington et al, 2020; Ross et al, 2021) and mountain summits (Allen et al, 2019; Napper et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are We Underestimating Anthropogenic Microfiber Pollution? A Critical Review of Occurrence, Methods, and Reporting

Athey

Erdle

2021

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

145

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Anthropogenic microfibers, a ubiquitous environmental contaminant, can be categorized as synthetic, semi-synthetic or natural according to material of origin and production process. Although natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, originated from natural sources, they often contain chemical additives, including colorants (e.g., dyes, pigments) and finishes (e.g., flame retardants, anti-microbial agents, UV-stabilizers).These additives are applied to textiles during production to give textiles desired properties This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Accepted Articlelike enhanced durability. Anthropogenically-modified 'natural' and semi-synthetic fibers are sufficiently persistent to undergo long-range transport and accumulate in the environment, where they are ingested by biota. Although most research and communication on microfibers has focused on the sources, pathways and effects of synthetic fibers in the environment, natural and semi-synthetic fibers warrant further investigation because of their abundance. Due to the challenges in enumerating and identifying natural and semi-synthetic fibers in environmental samples and the focus on microplastic or synthetic fibers, reports of anthropogenic microfibers in the environment may be underestimated. In this critical review, we (1) report that natural and semisynthetic microfibers are abundant, (2) highlight that some environmental compartments are relatively understudied in the microfiber literature, and (3) report which methods are suitable to enumerate and characterize the full suite of anthropogenic microfibers. We then use these findings to (4) recommend best practices to assess the abundance of anthropogenic microfibers in the environment, including natural and semi-synthetic fibers. By focusing exclusively on synthetic fibers in the environment, we are neglecting a major component of anthropogenic microfiber pollution.

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“…Typically, this means that fibers will not lie cleanly in the focal plane of the microscope. 20,21 These characteristics inherent to fibers have led to poor spectra being obtained, with many researchers reporting low matching scores to reference libraries. [22][23][24][25]…”

Section: Modes Of Ft-ir Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

A Simple Sample Preparation Method to Significantly Improve Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectra of Microplastics

Finnegan

Süsserott

Koh³

et al. 2022

Appl Spectrosc

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Spectroscopic analysis has become an essential part of the rapidly growing field of microplastic (MP) research. Here we introduce a simple sample preparation method which dramatically improves results from Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis of MP and other environmental fibres. Our method provides cost-effective, reliable, high-quality spectra that achieve high-matching scores to polymer libraries. The efficacy of this method is demonstrated with two environmental datasets from Singapore and Phnom Penh that were collected while sampling for atmospheric MPs. The method developed and applied in this study is a simplification of the KBr method, where the analysed fibre is pressed to a thickness of <10 μm, however no KBr powder is required. For the combined dataset, 379 non-pressed fibres were analysed with 193 (51%) returning a Search score of ≥80% (chosen minimum Search score threshold), and 259 pressed fibres, with 254 (98%) returning a Search score of ≥80%. Direct comparisons of fibres before and after pressing show that the highest individual Search score, and average Search score from multiple single-point measurements, are overwhelmingly higher following our method. Our method immobilises and improves the surface of the fibre, by creating a wider and uniform area for measurements to be taken. For FTIR operators, this saves considerable time, improves reliability of the analysis, and importantly, provides reproducibility of the spectra generated.

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Sampling with Niskin bottles and microfiltration reveals a high prevalence of microfibers

Cited by 19 publications

References 23 publications

Microplastics in Florida, United States: A Case Study of Quantification and Characterization With Intertidal Snails

Microplastics in Florida, United States: A Case Study of Quantification and Characterization With Intertidal Snails

Are We Underestimating Anthropogenic Microfiber Pollution? A Critical Review of Occurrence, Methods, and Reporting

A Simple Sample Preparation Method to Significantly Improve Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectra of Microplastics

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