Abundance and Distribution of Microplastics in Invertebrate and Fish Species and Sediment Samples along the German Wadden Sea Coastline.

ABSTRACT: Monitoring strategies are becoming increasingly important as microplastic contamination increases. To find potentially suitable organisms and sites for biota monitoring in the German Wadden Sea, we collected invertebrates (n = 1585), fish (n = 310), and sediment cores (n = 12) at 10 sites along the coast of Lower Saxony between 2018 and 2020. For sample processing of biota, the soft tissue was digested and the sediment samples additionally underwent a subsequent density separation step. Microplastic particles were identified using Nile red and fluorescence microscopy, followed by polymer composition analysis of a subset of particles via µRaman spectroscopy. All investigated species, sediment cores, and sites contained microplastics, predominantly in the morphology clas

SUBMITTER: Polt L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10215328 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature