Moss Bags as Biomonitors of Atmospheric Microplastic Deposition in Urban Environments.

ABSTRACT: Microplastics (plastic particles <5 mm) were first identified in the environment during the 1970s and have since become ubiquitous across every environmental compartment. However, few studies have focused on atmospheric microplastics, and even fewer have used biological monitoring to assess their atmospheric deposition. Here, we assess the efficacy of moss bags as an active biomonitoring technique for atmospheric microplastic deposition. Moss (Pleurozium schreberi) bags were exposed in duplicate at nine deployment sites across a gradient of urban intensity in southern Ontario, Canada. A total of 186 microplastics (mp) were detected in the moss bags, resulting in a mean accumulation of 7.9 mp g^-1 dry weight moss across all sites during the exposure period (45 days). The me

SUBMITTER: Bertrim C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9953122 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature