Exponential increase of plastic burial in mangrove sediments as a major plastic sink

Cecilia Martin, F. Baalkhuyur, L. Valluzzi, Vincent Saderne, Michael Cusack, Hanan Almahasheer, Lotfi Rabaoui, L. Rabaoui, M.A. Qurban, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Pere Masqué, Carlos M. Duarte

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

176 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sequestration of plastics in sediments is considered the ultimate sink of marine plastic pollution that would justify unexpectedly low loads found in surface waters. Here, we demonstrate that mangroves, generally supporting high sediment accretion rates, efficiently sequester plastics in their sediments. To this end, we extracted microplastics from dated sediment cores of the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf mangrove (Avicennia marina) forests along the Saudi Arabian coast. We found that microplastics
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)eaaz5593
JournalScience advances
Volume6
Issue number44
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 28 2020

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