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- sailing the Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans -
Anna Rotander and Anna KärrmanMTM Research Centre
Örebro University, Sweden
Studying POPs and plastic debris in ocean
gyres
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Outline• Introduction to plastics and POPs
• MTM involvement
• Movie time
• Challenges
• Preliminary results
• Future work 4
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Production and use
• 230-308 million tons/year• ~50% single use plastic• 720 million plastic bags/year in
Sweden• 500 plastic bags/year/person in the
EU• Plastic bags banned in Italy
January 2011
• Large amounts of newly producedplastic goes directly into the worldsoceans
Plastic Europe- Plastics the facts 2010Hopewell, J. et al., Plastics recycling: challenges
and opportunities. Philos. Trans. R. Soc., B 2009, 364 (1526), 2115–2126
Plastic debris in the surface waters of the South Atlantic.Morris, Marine Pollution Bulletin 1980 11 164-66
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Recycling
Plastic Europe- Plastics the facts 2010US-EPA 2009
USA 7% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
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VINYL PLASTICSPolyvinyl chloride (PVC)
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FLUOROPOLYMERSTeflon
PTFE (PolyTetraFluorEten)
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OLEFIN PLASTICS
Polypropylene (PP) Polyethene (PE)
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POLYAMIDENylon
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Sources, routes and distribution
Ryan 2009Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 364 1999-2012
Discharges from transport
and fishingindustry
Wind and water
transport from land
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Plastic debris in the ocean
Mechanicalerosion
O2
Macro plastic >20mm Micro plastic <2mm
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Floating plastics on Easter island
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Ocean transport and accumulation
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Accumulation zones
Maximenko 2008IPRC Climate 8(2) 14-16
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Effects on marine wildlife
Entanglement Ingestion
British Antarctica Survey
Albatrossunge, Kure atoll 2002Moore et al., Environmental Research 108
(2008) 131-139
Macro plastic> 20 mm
Micro plastic< 2 mm
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Persistent organic pollutants, POPs
Long-lived in the environment Global distribution Uptake by living organisms Threat to humans and the
environment
PersistentLong-range transportBioaccumulateNegative effects, toxic
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Indirect effects
1. Plastic can adsorb lipid soluble POPs from the surrounding media– Pesticides, PCBs, dioxins, etc
2. Plastic can contain chemical additives– Softeners, flame retardants, ”non-stick”-substances,
etc
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Additives vs accumulationAdditive
(up to 50weight% in plastics)
• Nonylphenyl• Pthalates• Bisphenol A• Styren monomers• …..
Accumulative substances (upp to a million times higher
concentration than the surrounding sea water )
• PCB• PAH• HCH• DDT• …..
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Rest monomersExample 1; polycarbonate plastic
Bisphenol AEndocrinedisruptor
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Rest monomersExample 2; teflon plastic
• 8:2 FTOH 8:2 FTOHBreaks down to for
examplePFOA:
• persistent• Potentially harmful:
developmental toxicity, cancerogen
Unreacted monomer
Degradation-product
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The importance of plastics as carriers of POPs to marine organisms
?• What is the effect of:
– organic film and itspotential to bind chemicals?
– The shape and plastic structure?
– The smallest fraction, <0.3 mm?
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PCB in PE nurdles (ng/g)
23Ogata et al., Marine Pollution Bulletin 58 (2009) 1437-1446
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PCB+PAH+pesticides+aliphatic hydrocarbons on plastic debris from the North Pacific Ocean
Rios et al. 2010 J. Environ. Monit., 12, 2226-2236
37 samples, mainly PE
USA
Mexico
Conclusion: marine plastic debris behaves like sediments
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How much plastics are there?
Floating in the ocean: 200-100000 particles/m3 water [Swedish west coast]Average 1 table spoon plastic/3 football fields [All world’s
oceans, 5Gyres]
Mass balance: Production–recycled plastics–plastic waste = 25% ”disapeared plastic” (USA)
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5Gyres• Understanding plastic pollution through
exploration, education and action• Research leaving a small environmental footprint• studying all five ocean gyres with the questions
– What is the surface abundance of plastic marine debris?– Are surface foraging fish ingesting micro-plastic
particles?
• supported by the UNEP Safe Planet campaign
26www.5gyres.org www.algalita.org
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MTM´s involvement
• Reference laboratory for UNEP • Actively performing research within the Safe Planet
campaign• Our objectives with sampling in the two Pacific gyres
• Increased levels of POPs in fish and water from the accumulationzones?
• Amount of POPs adsorbed to plastic debris from the gyres?
- focus on ”new” POPs (BFRs, PFCs)
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Bert van Bavel, Anna Kärrman, Anna Rotander, Jessika Hagberg
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Sea Dragon”We must go and see for ourselves” J.Y. Cousteau
• 72 feet sailing vessel• Former race yacht in the Global Challenge
Race • Owned by Pangaea Exploration and used
for missions that• ”strenghten the health of marine life” • ”inspires new generations of leaders in
conservation science” 28
www.panexplore.com
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Route February-May 2011
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February-March 2011Anna RotanderUruguay-Chile
April-May 2011Anna Kärrman
Easter Island-Tahiti
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Getting Sea Dragon ready in Piriápolis, Uruguay Feb 2011
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”Re-building” a cabin
• Electrical power• Strapping down the equipment• Storage space
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Sampling/sample prep on a sailing vessel• Weather conditions• Movement/leaning over• 24h watches (cleaning, driving, cooking etc)• Nausea/sea sickness• Skipper’s last word
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Sampling overview
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Around South Americasampled Feb 19 - March 17 2011
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South Pacific gyresampled Apr 12 - May 2 2011
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North Pacific Gyresampled July 7 - 27 2011
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Methodology PFCs in water
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Preparation
• 1-2L surface water• 200µL 1.6M Na2O3S2• Filtration 0.45µm glass fiber membrane filter
Extraction
• 7 labelled internal standards (Wellington Laboratories)• Solid phase extraction, Waters Oasis® WAX (Waters
Corporation)
Elution
• Wash 4mL 0.025M NaAc buffer, and 4mL methanol• Elute with 4mL 0.1% NH4OH
Analysis• Acquity UPLC BEH C18 separation• Quattro Premier XE MS/MS ES(-) detection (Waters
Corporation)
ISO 2501
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Preliminary results – sea water
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0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
pg/u
L
PFOS
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Sampling of ocean surface water
5Gyres Institute, Manta Trawl
Fine mesh net0.3 mm
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Trawl sample from the North Pacific gyre
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North PacificGyre
South PacificGyre
Around SouthAmerica
Future work
• Macro and micro plastic particles accumulated in ocean gyres will increase accumulation and bioavailability of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
– Increased levels of POPs in fish and water from the accumulation zones? – Challenges in getting fish samples– Challenges with blank levels– Trace levels, call for highly sensitive instrumentation
– Compare the North Pacific, the South Pacific and the supposedly ”clean” watersaround South America
– Amount of POPs adsorbed to plastic from the gyres?– Focus on ”new” POPs (BFRs, PFCs)
– Challenges in quantification of results– Challenges in comparing the results from the different trawls
Hypothesis
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Future work• Study and characterize macro and micro structures of plastic debris by advanced
Electron microscopy.
• Develop a high throughput method to determine the concentration and polymer type of micro plastic particles. – screening water samples for micro plastics with sizes <300 µm using membrane
technologies .– filter particles of smaller sizes than most monitoring programs to date are able to do.
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Thank you for your attention!