Abstract：
The mounting issue of plastic waste in the aquatic ecosystem is a growing source of concern. Most plastic waste originates on land and a significant proportion of this eventually finds its way into the marine environment, which is widely regarded as a major repository for plastic debris. Currently, there exists a substantial gap in our understanding of how much plastic, the main polymer types, and the distribution of plastic in the marine environment. This study aimed to provide information on mass concentrations of a range of plastics in the surface sediments in the semi-enclosed Moreton Bay, just offshore the large city of Brisbane, Southeast Queensland, Australia. Surface sediment samples were quantitatively analysed for a suite of 7 common plastic polymer types (i.e., polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC), poly-(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)) using a pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) followed by double-shot microfurnace pyrolysis coupled to gas chromatography mass spectrometry (Pyr-GC/MS). The advantage of this approach is that it can measure plastics below the limit of visual detection. The study revealed that Σ7plastics were consistently present in the samples, although the concentrations displayed a wide range of concentrations from 3.3 to 2194.2 μg/g across different sites. Among the polymers analysed, PE and PVC were found at the highest concentrations, ranging from 2.3 to 1885.9 μg/g and 3.0-979.5 μg/g, respectively. Based on the average concentrations of plastics measured, the dry bulk density and volume of sediments within the top 10 cm of the bay, it was estimated that there is a minimum of 7000 t of plastics stored in the surface sediments of the bay. This study is the first to report the mass concentrations of identified plastics and identify the main polymer types in Moreton Bay. This is important information to develop management plans to reduce the plastic waste entering the coastal marine environment.
摘要：
塑料废物在水生生态系统中的问题日益引起人们的关注。大多数塑料废物都来自陆地，其中很大一部分最终会进入海洋环境。被广泛认为是塑料碎片的主要储存库。目前,我们对多少塑料的理解存在很大的差距，主要的聚合物类型，以及塑料在海洋环境中的分布。这项研究旨在提供有关半封闭摩顿湾表层沉积物中一系列塑料的质量浓度的信息，就在布里斯班大城市的近海，昆士兰州东南部，澳大利亚。对一组7种常见塑料聚合物类型的地表沉积物样品进行了定量分析(即，聚苯乙烯（PS），聚碳酸酯(PC),聚（甲基丙烯酸甲酯）（PMMA），聚丙烯（PP），聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET),聚乙烯（PE）和聚氯乙烯（PVC））使用加压液体萃取（PLE），然后进行双射微炉热解与气相色谱质谱（Pyr-GC/MS）。这种方法的优点是它可以测量低于视觉检测极限的塑料。研究表明，Σ7塑料始终存在于样品中，尽管浓度显示在不同地点的浓度范围为3.3至2194.2μg/g。在分析的聚合物中，发现PE和PVC的浓度最高，范围从2.3到1885.9μg/g和3.0-979.5μg/g，分别。根据测得的塑料平均浓度，海湾顶部10厘米内沉积物的干堆积密度和体积，据估计，海湾的表层沉积物中储存了至少7000吨塑料。这项研究是首次报告已确定塑料的质量浓度，并确定了摩顿湾的主要聚合物类型。这是制定管理计划以减少塑料废物进入沿海海洋环境的重要信息。
