New Delhi, Oct. 05 (India Science Wire): Microplastics are usually plastic particles of less than 5 mm. It
may be primary or secondary microplastics which can be found in coastal environments all over the
world. Also, the microplastics are much more hazardous than macroplastics because of their availability in
all levels of marine food webs.
In a study conducted by the Department of Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University covering eight
different sampling stations along a 71 km long coastline with both urbanized beaches and undisturbed
coastal areas along the Indian Ocean, the researchers assessed the magnitude of the microplastic
pollution problem. The study revealed that microplastic is one of the carriers of major pollution to the
marine environment found along the entire Kanyakumari coastal stretch of southernmost India. The study
came out with baseline data that helped in understanding the occurrence and distribution of
microplastics (MPs) in the near-shore sediments. The researchers said that further studies would help in
understanding the transport of microplastics as well as evaluate their interaction with the marine
ecosystem of the region.
Researchers found an overall higher abundance of microplastics at the urbanized beaches as compared to
undisturbed beaches due to significant human influence such as tourism activities as well as fishing. While
tourist beaches had high levels of microplastics, more remote beaches and fishing ports also exhibited
large amounts of microplastic pollution with plastic debris accumulation to the highest degree affecting
the marine food web.
When sediments were analyzed, it was found that the tourist beaches have a microplastics pollution with
150 particles (44%), harbor beaches with 99 particles (28.5%) and the coastal stretches along the
undisturbed areas with 15 particles (4.3%). These items also likely to contain fibres from clothing and
other synthetic textiles almost two fold more as compared with the tiny fragments from larger objects
that had broken down over time.
In the present study, scientists tracked microplastics samples from different beach sediments, the
average of which is found to be up to 43 particles per 50 g dry sediments. New research would help to
identify mechanisms that influence their transport and deposition in the coastal sediments as well as
evaluate the possible interaction between microplastic particles and marine ecosystems. The authors
urged policymakers and consumers to take proactive actions focusing on measures that can stop the
plastics from intruding and polluting the ocean.
Photo evidence of litters in beaches of Kanyakumari coastal stretch, Southern India
This research was done by Sajimol Sundar of the Department of Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan
University, Tiruchirappalli, the research team comprised of Lakshumanan Chokkalingam of the
Department of Remote Sensing, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, Priyadarsi D. Roy Instituto de
Geología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico and Tune
Usha of National Centre for Coastal Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Chennai, India.
The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research and was
funded by the Department of Science and Technology under the PURSE II scheme. (India Science Wire)