The Fate of Particulate Organic Material (POM) and Microplastics (MPs) in the Coastal Zone
A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Environmental Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2022) | Viewed by 638
Special Issue Editor
Interests: Micro and Nano-plastics (MNPs) Pollution; trace metals in aquatic ecosystem; aquatic ecotoxicology; food safety; risk assessment
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plastic marine debris has been described by scientists as an ecological disaster or a ‘technofossil’ of the Anthropocene. By 2050, the World Economic Forum has estimated that the oceans are expected to contain more plastics by weight than fish and by then the plastic industry will be responsible for the consumption of 20% of total oil production and 15% of the worldwide annual carbon budget. Plastic debris in the long term can disintegrate into smaller particles and ultimately become microplastics (MPs). The scale of the MPs issue in the marine environment can be illustrated by the fact that between 15 and 51 trillion MP particles are floating in the world’s oceans. The fate of MPs in the aquatic environment is highly influenced by the settling velocity, type of polymer, shape, size, bathymetry, hydrodynamic regime, waves and currents, sediment grain size, and biofouling, which affects sinking. MPs can also be digested by marine organisms and transferred into fecal pellets with an increased sinking rate. Additionally, one important area that is only beginning to be addressed is the effect of organic matter and carbon cycling on MPs in marine environments. We believe that the seasonal production and degradation of organic matter and the corresponding changes in the aquatic ecosystem affect MPs’ capacity for transportation and being buried in sediments in different seasons. This Marine Science and Engineering Special Issue calls for studies looking at new methods of improving our understanding of the fate and toxicological effects of MPs and particulate organic materials in coastal zones.
Dr. Abolfazl Naji
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- microplastics
- organic matters
- size-effect
- technofossil
- food web
- intertidal zone
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