Are Microplastic (∼25–1000 μm) and Plasticizer Concentrations Correlated in Sediments of an Urbanized UK Estuary?

An understanding of the relationships between plastics and plasticizers is vital in order to assess their environmental risk. We investigated spatial trends and relationships between microplastics and plasticizers in sediments of an urbanized estuary subject to contemporary and historic sources of contamination (Forth estuary, Scotland, UK). As such, this study represents one of the first to investigate the co-occurrence of emerging plasticizers, phthalates, and microplastics in an estuary system. We determined the concentration of 7 legacy (phthalate) and 3 emerging (adipate, terephthalate, trimellitate) plasticizers and 21 microplastic polymer types. The most abundant microplastics were polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyurethane (PU), and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC). Plasticizers were dominated by diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), although emerging plasticizers (e.g., diethylhexyl terephthalate, DEHTP) were frequently detected at low concentrations (mean 7.3 ng g–1 ww). There was strong evidence that concentrations of microplastics and plasticizers were significantly lower in the outer estuary. However, we found no evidence for a spatial relationship between the concentration of microplastics and plasticizers at individual site level. Our results indicate that microplastics in the size range analyzed (∼25–1000 μm) may not be a good predictor of the spatial distribution of plasticizers in estuaries. This could result from release of plasticizers prior to plastic fragmentation and deposition and differences in transport and fate.

pubs.acs.org

Windermere study to save declining rare fish species

Arctic charr numbers in Windemere in the Lake District are falling and researchers want to know why.

bbc.co.uk

Lake District Charr Recovery & Management (CHARM) – Big Give

We want to save one of England's rarest fish species, Arctic charr, from extinction. We will engage communities in the …

bit.ly

Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review

Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.

nature.com

Kinetics of plasticiser release and degradation in soils

Despite the increasing use of emerging phthalate and non-phthalate plasticisers as replacements for restricted phthalates, few studies have investigat…

sciencedirect.com

Terrible Lizards: TLS11E01 Say My Name

Series 11, eh? We don’t think we, or anyone else reading this, expected that. Nor did we expect issues with Dave’s microphone (apologies)… Still, here we are and with more dinosaur goodness coming. We...

terriblelizards.libsyn.com

BBC says it has complained to Apple over AI-generated fake news attributed to broadcaster

Notifications from a new Apple product falsely suggested the BBC claimed the New York gunman Luigi Mangione had killed himself The BBC says it has filed a complaint with the US tech giant Apple over AI-generated fake news that was shared on iPhones and…

theguardian.com