In the Antarctic Ocean, the farthest away from human life, microplastics are once again discovered by scientists.
Reporters learned from the State Oceanic Administration on the 10th, Scientists conducting the 34th Antarctic expedition mission in China recently discovered for the first time in the Antarctic waters the existence of micro-plastics. At present, there is no consensus on the size of micro-plastic in academia, but it is generally considered to be plastic particles with a diameter of less than 5 mm. It is also compared vividly to 'PM 2.5' in the ocean by scientists.
Sun Chengjun, a researcher at the Ecological Center of the First Institute of Oceanography under the State Oceanic Administration, said in an interview that the presence of micro-plastics in inaccessible places shows that the impact of micro-plastics is very far-reaching.
The reporter learned that this is not the first time that microplastic has been found in Antarctic waters, and a survey released by Kyushu University and Tokyo Ocean University in 2016 showed that there is also a 'micromixture' floating in Antarctic waters that may have a negative impact on ecosystems. The result was published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, a professional marine pollution issue.
This is believed to be the first time that micro-plastics were found in the Antarctic waters.The survey was conducted at five locations between Australia and the Antarctic continent from January to February of that year with an estimated 140,000 to 290,000 converted per square kilometer, The average number of ocean 100,000, but researchers said the data are not enough to infer the overall state of the Antarctic ocean, but also do not know the exact source of particles.Kyushu University, Professor of Marine Physics shore Atsuhiko was called to expand the survey, said 'Found in the Antarctic Sea, the farthest away from the human sphere of life (micro plastic), can be thought of as it has spread all over the world.'
The 2017 Antarctic Marine Systems Microformatology: A Emerging Field Study states that at present the microplastics data in Antarctic waters are scarce, but plastics outside the waters may contribute to micromix pollution in Antarctic waters.
Although there is no direct evidence that micro plastic affects human health, its impact on marine ecological security can not be ignored.
In 2016, the State Oceanic Administration started the monitoring of micro-plastic in offshore China and carried out marine micro-plastic monitoring of Arctic and oceanic environments last year, which will greatly enhance China's international influence in marine litter and micro-plastic fields and promote China's marine micro-plastic monitoring into the global marine micro-plastic monitoring and international governance.
Micro plastic spread to the global waters, but the relevant industry in an interview with Science and Technology Daily that the current micro-plastic marine environmental behavior, ecological toxicity and mechanism of action is not yet fully understood. This also makes micro plastic become a hot and frontier field of international marine ecology and environmental science research.