SEASONAL CHANGES IN DRIFT DISTRIBUTION OF MICROPLASTICS ON OCEAN SURFACE OFF FUNAHASHI

Abstract

 Microplastics adsorb highly toxic chemicals, and there are concerns about their impact on marine organisms. Under these circumstances, the actual status of MPs pollution is being investigated in Japan. In this study, we focused on Tokyo Bay and grasped the actual condition of MPs pollution in the ocean surface. The purpose of this study was to understand the seasonality of the number and size of MPs drifting on the sea surface. As a result, it is possible that the numbers, types, and sizes of MPs detected in Tokyo Bay vary greatly depending on the sea area, and that the number increases with increasing rainfall, and that the number, types, and sizes of MPs detected differ depending on the sea area due to differences in inflow sources. It was suggested that there was a tendency for the size to decrease with an increase in the number of MPs, and that there might be differences in the fragmentation mechanism depending on the polymer.