Refilwe Mofokeng, Gemma Gerber, Mathew Coote, Sipho Mkhize, Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented at the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice 2015.
Slides from the Deschutes Land Trust's Nature Night presentation by Dr. Susanne Brander, researcher at Oregon State University considering the impacts of microplastic pollution on our environment.
Slides from the Deschutes Land Trust's Nature Night presentation by Dr. Susanne Brander, researcher at Oregon State University considering the impacts of microplastic pollution on our environment.
Microplastics, small pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm (0.2 inches) in length, that occur in the environment as a consequence of plastic pollution. Microplastics are present in a variety of products, from cosmetics to synthetic clothing to plastic bags and bottles. Many of these products readily enter the environment in wastes.
Microplastic uptake and retention in Perna perna (L.); Tripneustes gratilla (...MACE Lab
Gemma Gerber, Thembani Mkhize, Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented at the ninth Scientific Symposium of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) 2015.
During our October 27 webinar, we discussed what the newest research is revealing about the pervasiveness and dangers of microplastics, and highlighted ways to reduce your exposure to microplastics as well as how to support legislation and policy change to make an impact. The webinar was moderated by Abby Barrows, Marine Scientist, and panelists included: Prigi Arisandi, Executive Director, Ecoton; Dr. Charles Rolsky, Postdoctoral student, Biodesign Institute, ASU & Plastic Oceans International, Director of Science, North America; and Thara Bening Sandrina, Captain, River Warrior.
Its all about Microplastics, which is being a very pronounced issue these days. What microplastics are and how they affect the oceans and marine organisms.
Presentation at the ESPP stakeholder meeting concerning the use on farmland of sewage biosolids (04/12/2018) organised by the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP, www.phosphorusplatform.eu)
All outcomes of the meeting can be found here https://www.phosphorusplatform.eu/activities/conference/meeting-archive/1788-espp-meeting-sludge-2018
Microplastics - an incomplete but potentially frightening pictureStefanBarot
Microplastics are an increasing threat to health by their presence in seafood. Due to a lack of sufficient statistically relevant data their presence and impact is still difficult to estimate, however the origin of microplastics seems to be firming up.
Microplastics in marine organisms in KZN: A new conservation threat?MACE Lab
Refilwe Mofokeng, Gemma Gerber, Mathew Coote, Sipho Mkhize, Thembani Mkhize, Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented at the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice 2015.
Abstract: Microplastics in fish from the KwaZulu-Natal BightMACE Lab
Authors: Sipho Mkhize (MACE Lab NRF Intern 2015), Dr Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley.
Submitted and accepted for the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Symposium (SCCP) 2016.
Microplastics, small pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm (0.2 inches) in length, that occur in the environment as a consequence of plastic pollution. Microplastics are present in a variety of products, from cosmetics to synthetic clothing to plastic bags and bottles. Many of these products readily enter the environment in wastes.
Microplastic uptake and retention in Perna perna (L.); Tripneustes gratilla (...MACE Lab
Gemma Gerber, Thembani Mkhize, Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented at the ninth Scientific Symposium of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) 2015.
During our October 27 webinar, we discussed what the newest research is revealing about the pervasiveness and dangers of microplastics, and highlighted ways to reduce your exposure to microplastics as well as how to support legislation and policy change to make an impact. The webinar was moderated by Abby Barrows, Marine Scientist, and panelists included: Prigi Arisandi, Executive Director, Ecoton; Dr. Charles Rolsky, Postdoctoral student, Biodesign Institute, ASU & Plastic Oceans International, Director of Science, North America; and Thara Bening Sandrina, Captain, River Warrior.
Its all about Microplastics, which is being a very pronounced issue these days. What microplastics are and how they affect the oceans and marine organisms.
Presentation at the ESPP stakeholder meeting concerning the use on farmland of sewage biosolids (04/12/2018) organised by the European Sustainable Phosphorus Platform (ESPP, www.phosphorusplatform.eu)
All outcomes of the meeting can be found here https://www.phosphorusplatform.eu/activities/conference/meeting-archive/1788-espp-meeting-sludge-2018
Microplastics - an incomplete but potentially frightening pictureStefanBarot
Microplastics are an increasing threat to health by their presence in seafood. Due to a lack of sufficient statistically relevant data their presence and impact is still difficult to estimate, however the origin of microplastics seems to be firming up.
Microplastics in marine organisms in KZN: A new conservation threat?MACE Lab
Refilwe Mofokeng, Gemma Gerber, Mathew Coote, Sipho Mkhize, Thembani Mkhize, Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented at the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Practice 2015.
Abstract: Microplastics in fish from the KwaZulu-Natal BightMACE Lab
Authors: Sipho Mkhize (MACE Lab NRF Intern 2015), Dr Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley.
Submitted and accepted for the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Symposium (SCCP) 2016.
Gemma Gerber, Thembani Mkhize, Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Presented the the ninth Scientific Symposium of the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (WIOMSA) 2015.
Lecture module on Microplastic Pollution (Microplastic, its types, classification, sources, degradation (biotic & abiotic), distribution and fate of microplastics in terrestrial, marine, freshwater, snow environment and atmosphere; Sampling of Microplastic and Quantification and identification of microplastics - FTIR and Raman spectroscopy
STUDY ON MICROPLASTIC CHALLENGE – INDIAN STATUS AND SOLUTIONS Srinjoy Chatterjee
1. Microplastic (MPs) now has emerged as an alarming environmental pollutant and its prevalence is now widely observed in various ecosystems.
2. The term “microplastic” coined by Thompson et al in the year 2004 basically represents heterogeneous mixture of smaller plastic fragments in the size range of 0.001-5 mm.
3. They may originate either directly (primary sources) through engineered particles such as microbeads/microfibers widely used in Personal Care Products or through fragmentation of larger plastic particles as a result of various anthropogenic activities (secondary sources).
Examples - Fragments of fishing gear, packages and drink bottles, synthetic textiles, car tyres, paints, and cosmetics. Natural breakdown through UV rays of sunlight, microbial processes, or through thermal oxidative processes also account for fragmentation of large plastic particles into MPs.
4. MPs basically consists of six major types of plastic products namely, Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polyamide (PA), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), Polystyrene (PS), Polyurethane (PUR), and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
.
.
.
WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS TO THIS MENACE?
1. SOLUTIONS BY REGULATORS, SCIENTISTS, GOVERNMENT AND MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.
Microplastics are tiny and may not be easily noticed as a treat to both sea and human life, therefore there is an urgent need to combat it. The potential risk to food security, and thereby human health, has led:
• regulators to call for better understanding education and public awareness of the fate and effects of microplastic debris on marine life.
• to the call for urgent actions by scientists (researching more) government (putting right policies in place) and the manufacturing industries on the need for the reduction of the production and activities resulting in the availability and spread of microplastic into the marine environment.
• To the need to strengthen international and regional cooperation in this area among: decision-makers researchers and academias to raise awareness in addressing water-related issues.
2. PUTTING IN PLACE APPRORIATE PROHIBITIONS, LAWS AND BANS.
The following should be done:
• For Countries: Prohibiting or disincentivizing land-based materials causing marine litter such as the use of microbead plastics for toothpaste.
• For Manufacturing: National law and sub-national law should be put in place.
• At Retail Level: National Law and sub-national law should be put in place.
3. MEASURES TO DO AS AN INDIVIDUAL.
• Report plastics pollutions e.g by using hashtag #plasticspollution with the photo, date and location.
• Cut down on plastics by staying clear of plastic products. Look for natural alternatives or reuseable containers. Don’t buy cleansers and cosmetics with microbeads.
• Clean-up plastic pollution. When possible use a pool or aquarium skimmer to remove plastics debris from the water and throw the debris in the garbage.
• About 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the 1950s – the weight of roughly a billion elephants or 47 million blue whales.
• Only about 9% of this plastic has been recycled, 12% has been burned and the remaining 79% has ended up in landfills or the environment.
• Up to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters the oceans every year
Nova Scotia Community College Tech Showcase the 2020 Virtual EditionRebeccaTeddiman
Due to the Covid 19 outbreak the annual Tech Showcase was cancelled. This offers Industry an alternative to see what my applied research project entailed.
ANALYSIS OF THE CONCENTRATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION A...Asramid Yasin
Abstrac: Microplastics represent one of the most current global concern issues for environmental and human health. The main concern is for aquatic ecosystems, a very large increase in the number of microplastics has recently transformed these compounds and their degradation products into one of the most common marine debris. To decompose plastic waste requires 50-100 years to be completely degraded so that it becomes a threat to aquatic ecosystems. This research aims to determine the concentration and characteristics of microplastics pollution at estuaries at Kendari Bay. The data of this research were sourced from water and sediment samples from 3 estuaries at Kendari Bay including the Punggaloba estuary, Lahundape estuary, and Wanggu estuary. The analytical methods used in this research include National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Origin Software and SPSS Software. The results showed that the Kendari Bay was contaminated by microplastics. The highest concentration of microplastic pollution is found at the Lahundape estuary, which is 10.07 particles/liter of water and Punggaloba estuary, which is 96 particles/kg of sediment. Microplastic characteristics are based on morphological analysis and particle size. It can be seen that the shape of microplastic particles from water and sediments includes fragments, fibers, and pellets. The range of microplastic sizes in water samples ranges from 0.24-20.34 μm while the size range in sediment samples ranges from 0.12-16.53 μm. The most dominant source of microplastic polymers found at Kendari bay is polystyrene type.
The global production of plastics is increasing, and that increase is accompanied by an increase in plastic waste.
Part of this waste makes its way into the marine environment in the form of micro-plastics, small particles of plastic that can either be produced as plastic pellets, or result from the degradation of plastic objects such as bags, clothes, household items as well as building materials and fishing and aquaculture gear that has been discarded or lost.
What do we know about the extent of this problem?
Microplastic is an emerging problem for aquatic as well as terrestrial organisms. Plastic is a synthetic material which is produced from organic polymers including polyethylene, nylon and PVC. There are mainly two types of the MP 1st is primary microplastic and 2nd is secondary microplastic. The source of these microplastic are domestic and industrial products include sunscreens, cosmetic, scrubbers (facial scrubs and hand cleansers) personal care products, insect repellents and materials used in air-blasting, other industrial applications and some plastic are produce breaking of very large plastic by a different process such as chemical deposition, physical fragmentation, physical fragmentation and biological degradation in terrestrial or marine environments. Microplastic cause lethal effect on marine organisms includes invertebrates, vertebrates and other biotas of the marine organisms. Microplastic cause tissue and organ damages, the effect on respiration rates, reduction of feeding, the effect on digestive cavities, to impaired immune functions and physiological stress which influence the status of health and the behavior, accumulation within mussels cause cellular damage which response to oxidative stress and toxic reaction in all organisms of water. Microplastic in aquatic organisms not only kills the marine organisms but also disturb human health. Microplastic directly or indirectly enters into the human food chain and cause digestive problems, stomach disease and cancer in human. Microplastic also causes financial damage because fishes are the main source of income in many countries. Without immediate strong preventive measures about microplastic many problems will be world face in the future. In this article, we discuss the about the source of microplastic, transfer of microplastic, the effect on marine organisms as well as human, ingestion of microplastic and control measure of microplastic.
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Otto Heinrich Warburg (; 8 October 1883 – 1 August 1970) In 1931 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology for his "discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme.
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Microplastic s in marine organisms in KZN: A new conservation threat?
1. Microplastics in marine organisms in KZN:
A new conservation threat?
A representation of studies conducted on microplastics in various countries worldwide showing the number
of publications per country/region.
• UK is the most active country in microplastics research
• Africa has no published studies focusing solely on microplastics to date .
So what does this mean?
80 % of microplastics in Durban are
from domestic sources!
“… medical studies on both
rodents and humans have
also shown that particles of
polyvinylchloride and
polystyrene <150 µm can
translocate from the gut
cavity to the lymph and
circulatory systems.”
Microplastics get consumed by
fish which affect their endocrine
and reproductive systems thus
impacting overall conservation of
aquatic organisms
R.P. Mofokeng, G. Gerber, M.W. Coote, S.K. Mkhize, T. Mkhize, D. Robertson-Andersson, and G.K. Moodley.
University of KwaZulu-Natal (Westville Campus), School of Life Sciences.
What are microplastics?
• Small plastic particles, <5 mm in
size.
• There are two forms of
microplastics (MP) namely; primary
(A1) and secondary (B) MP.
• Primary MP (A1) are found mostly
in cosmetics, plastic beads and
industrial effluent (A2).
• Secondary MP (B) result from
degradation of large plastic debris
which break down over a period of
time.
p <0.0001
F value = 31.98
Stomopneutes Tripneustes
3 X
Conclusion
• All investigated organisms ingested microplastics.
• Microplastics are not only abrasive causing physical harm to organisms, they also tend to accumulate heavy metals and Persistent Organic
Pollutants.
• Microplastics may therefore cause accelerated bioaccumulation of toxins up the food chain thus impacting conservation of aquatic
biodiversity as well as human health.
The solution , however, is in our homes!!!
• 80% of microplastics in Durban's marine waters are beads and fibres, which are present in daily household products such as toothpaste,
facial cleansers, make-up and synthetic fibres.
• Simple behavioural changes such as using alternative products that do not contain microplastics and installing filters in washing machines to
trap fibres from entering aquatic systems are some of the measures that can be taken to reduce the amount of microplastics entering marine
systems.
• This will enhance conservation of aquatic systems, ensuring a healthier and sustainable marine environment.
2 X
X
Microbeads (< 1 mm & 1 – 2 mm) - similar to natural gut retention time
Microbeads (> 5 mm) - 3 x Natural gut retention time (39.6 + 5.8 h)
Microfibres (> 1 mm) - 2 x Natural gut retention (23.8 + 10.4h)
Mussels ingest more plastics with increasing
concentration of microplastics in the water column.
• Sea urchins can take up microplastics through the
madreporite as well as ingesting them.
• The larger the madreporite pore size, the potentially
higher the intake of microplastics.
Globally more than 240million tonnes of
plastic is used each year.
The number of plastics produced now is
around 250 million t.y-1 with a 10 %
annual increase
Mussel: Perna perna
Sea urchins:
Stomopneustes variolaris & Tripneustes gratillaMullet: Mugil cephalus
EFFECTS OF MICROPLASTICS ON AQUATIC ORGANISMS IN THE KZN BIGHT
• Of 187 fish dissected, 34 % had plastics in them
• ALL 16 species caught contained microplastics
• Fish caught in the Durban eddy contained significantly higher microplastic concentrations than
fish caught in Richards Bay or Durban.
• 141 plastic pieces were recovered from fish digestive tracts.
A1
A2
B
Microplastics transport to aquatic
systems?
• Directly introduced into aquatic systems
(freshwater & marine):
• Through drains, sewage, factories, etc.
• Or they are a result of UV degradation
of plastics over time.
Cocktails of toxicants
scorb onto MP particles
PCB
PAH
PBDE’s