scholarly journals Occurrence and distribution of microplastics in the beach sediment of Anday Beach, West Papua (Indonesia)

2021 ◽  
Vol 944 (1) ◽  
pp. 012070
Author(s):  
I C A Marei ◽  
F I E Saleh ◽  
C Y Manullang ◽  
A Soamole ◽  
I Rehalat

Abstract In the last two decades, scientists have extensively studied microplastics (MPs), small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long, which can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life. The MPs in the environment came from the tiny particles designed for commercial use, such as cosmetics. The other sources come from the breakdown of larger plastic items. In this study, the occurrence and distribution of MPs were investigated in the Anday Beach of West Papua (Indonesia). The sampling was conducted from March to May 2019 on Anday Beach. The abundance of MPs found were 0.28 to 1 n/kg for MPs (1-5 mm) and 1140.6 to 1997.6 n/kg for MPs (< 1 mm). The highest abundance of MPs found on Anday Beach was plastic film. We suggest doing a regular beach clean-up to ensure the continuous assessment of marine litter in the coastal areas and extend the sampling area in Papua to record the plastic pollution status in the Papua.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharif Jemaa ◽  
Celine Mahfouz ◽  
Maria Kazour ◽  
Myriam Lteif ◽  
Abed El Rahman Hassoun ◽  
...  

Despite emerging and increasing concerns related to marine micro and macroplastics, no systematic surveys have been undertaken yet in the Lebanese marine area. To understand the spatio-temporal variation of plastic litter (macro and microplastics) in the Lebanese marine environment and to determine the sources of pollution, this study investigated the characteristics of plastic pollution in sea surface waters during wet and dry seasons in 22 sites of Beirut and Tyre regions. A total of 23,023 items were identified and assessed according to the shape, color, and concentration; moreover, the risk of microplastics (MPs) contamination was explored based on a risk assessment model. The obtained results demonstrated that the average macroplastics concentration was 0.45 ± 0.6 items/m3. The average microplastics concentration was found to be 20.1 ± 21.8 and 3.78 ± 5.2 items/m3 in spring and fall respectively. During fall, MPs fragments were dominant in Beirut (97%) and Tyre (91%), and no pellets were observed. During spring, filaments were most encountered in Beirut (76.5%). The most dominant marine litter color was blue followed by black and white. The Pollution Load Index (PLI) values showed a moderate contamination of the Lebanese coast with MPs (PLI: 5.79 ± 3.93) except for several sites in Beirut that showed high values of PLI, highlighting the local influence of cities and rivers on MPs concentration. This study serves as an important baseline for understanding the characteristics of the seasonal variation of MPs along the Lebanese marine environment; it will help stakeholders and countries to take proactive and reactive actions to face plastic litter pollution in the Lebanese coastal area.


Check List ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Fernandes Rodrigues Alves ◽  
Samara De Paiva Barros-Alves ◽  
Valter José Cobo ◽  
Daniel José Marcondes Lima ◽  
Adilson Fransozo

Biodiversity can be useful as an ecosystem indicator for conservation and monitoring, through continuous assessment of its main properties including stability, primary productivity, exploitation tolerance and even global environmental changes. The main purpose of this study was to provide a checklist of the crabs associated with subtidal rocky bottoms at the Vitoria Archipelago, southeastern Brazilian coast. Monthly collections were carried out from February 2004 through January 2006 on three islands at the Vitória Archipelago (23°44’S-45°01’W). The crabs were hand-caught by SCUBA divers during the daytime, in rock subtidal. A total of 3084 individuals were caught, belonging to 42 species, 28 genera, and 12 families, highlighting Mithraculus forceps (1528) and Stenorhynchus seticornis (407) representing more than 60% of the sample. On the other hand, Dromia erythropus, Moreiradromia antilensis, Ebalia stimpsoni, Garthiope spinipes and Tumidotheres maculatus had only one individual sampled.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 206-211
Author(s):  
Sandrine Maljean-Dubois ◽  
Benoît Mayer

The UN General Assembly and the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) have expressed concerns about the pollution of the sea by plastics, which adversely impacts ecosystems, some economic activities (e.g., tourism and fishing), and possibly public health (e.g., consumption of contaminated fish). In December 2017, the UNEA decided to establish the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics to examine ways to combat marine plastic pollution. The group met three times in 2018 and 2019, and at least two more meetings are planned. Among potential responses to the issue of marine pollution, the group briefly considered—but eventually dismissed—the possibility of creating a liability or compensation regime. This essay evaluates the prospects for such a regime. As the essay will show, compensation faces significant conceptual problems, not the least of which is the absence of an obvious recipient. However, some form of liability could be imposed on corporations that produce plastic, or on states that fail to regulate them. Such a liability regime, even without financial compensation, could foster the prevention of further marine plastic pollution.


Agronomy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 600
Author(s):  
Shi Hua Lv ◽  
Yu Jiao Dong ◽  
Yuan Jiang ◽  
Hilario Padilla ◽  
Joanne Li ◽  
...  

China has attained rice sufficiency with the increased use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer, but this has led to serious N pollution. China has the world’s highest use of N with the lowest N use efficiency (NUE). Including livestock production, China’s agriculture sector has surpassed industry as the greatest polluter of water. Using plastic film on raised-beds, combined with improved agronomic practices, can boost rice yield by 50% with 36% less N fertilizer use, 30% higher NUE, and stabilized the yield of 9.75 t ha−1. It also counters the effects of drought and low ambient temperature. A six-year study was conducted combining no-tillage, crop-residue mulch, and plastic cover, alternating organic rice and rapeseed production. All the treatments, fertilized with biogas slurry and rapeseed meal, gave rice yields of 7.0 to 10.7 t ha−1, well above China’s average of 6.5 t ha−1. In this time, soil organic matter increased from 1.6% to 4.2%. In the first four years, the combination of crop-residue mulch with plastic cover had a slightly higher yield than mulch alone. In the fifth and sixth years, the latter treatment surpassed the use of plastic cover with crop-residue mulch. Trials with a biodegradable film show that plastic pollution can be dealt with.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4763 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-592
Author(s):  
LARS HENDRICH ◽  
SURIANI SURBAKTI ◽  
MICHAEL BALKE

Here we describe Limbodessus skalei sp. nov. from the island of Waigeo, off the coast of West Papua. It can be easily distinguished from the nearby New Guinea mainland species as well as the other members of the genus by its small size and testaceous elytra with conspicuous darker broad basal and subapical patches. Altogether four Limbodessus species are now known from the New Guinea region. 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Strobl ◽  
Tim van Emmerik ◽  
Jan Seibert ◽  
Simon Etter ◽  
Tijmen den Oudendammer ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Plastic debris in aquatic environments is an emerging environmental hazard. Macroplastic pollution (&gt;5 cm) negatively impacts aquatic life and threatens human livelihood, on land, in oceans and within river systems. Reliable information of the origin, fate and pathways of plastic through river systems are required to optimize prevention, mitigation and reduction strategies. Yet, accurate and long-term data on plastic transport are still lacking. Current macroplastic monitoring strategies involve labor intensive sampling methods, require investment in infrastructure. As a result, these measurements have a low temporal resolution and are available for only a few locations. Crowd-based observations of riverine macroplastic pollution may offer a way for more frequent cost-effective data collection over an extensive geographical range. In this presentation we demonstrate the potential of crowd-based observations of&amp;#160; floating plastic and plastic on riverbanks. We extended the existing CrowdWater smartphone app for hydrological observations with a module for plastic observations in rivers. We analyzed data from two cases: (1) floating plastic in the River Klang, Malaysia, and (2) plastic the banks of the River Rhine in The Netherlands. Crowd-based observations of floating plastic yield similar estimates of plastic transport, distribution of plastic across the river width, and polymer composition as reference observations. The riverbank observations provided the first data of plastic pollution on the most downstream stretches of the Rhine, revealing peaks close to urban areas and an increasing plastic density towards the river mouth. With this presentation we aim to highlight the important role that crowd-based observations of macroplastic pollution in river systems can play in future monitoring strategies to provide complementing data of plastic transport composition at a higher spatial and temporal resolution than is possible with standard methods.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (Special Issue) ◽  
Author(s):  
lbrahim Tan

Marine litter is a crucial problem for marine environment, and this problem is generally based on anthropogenic activities. Even though human-induced activities that cause marine litter are well known, they have not been assessed for the microplastic pollution yet. Here, we present the Microplastic Pollution Index (MPI); a fast, convenient, inexpensive and semi-quantitative tool for assessing land- and marinebased pressures on the sampling area. In this preliminary study, MPI were determined for eight different locations in Marmara Sea. The Marmara Sea is under the effect of several pressures, which can be seen from MPI results. Furthermore, currents and coastline morphology affect the retention time of water at the coastal zone. The highest MPI values were obtained from the Izmit and Bandırma gulfs, whereas the lowest value was found at entrance of the Dardanelle Strait. MPI values and manta net abundance values for each station showed a good linear relation (R2 = 0.58; F = 7.113; DF =1, q = 0.045). No correlation was found between the water column and sediment abundance values. MPI is providing information on microplastic pollution, which is useful to create an effective monitoring strategy. Furthermore, environmental managers can use this information to combat, restore and protect coastal waters against the microplastic pollution.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingxue Yu ◽  
Markus Flury

&lt;p&gt;Plastics pollution of terrestrial environments is a global problem, and plastics have been observed even in remote areas. However, how much plastic is present in terrestrial ecosystems is not well known. Here, we present a theoretical framework for representative sampling of randomly distributed plastic particles in soils or sediments. Based on geostatistical analysis, we determined optimal sampling strategies to quantify micro- and nanoplastics in soils or sediments. We used numerical simulations to test the sampling of randomly distributed plastic particles, and determined the sampling support (number of cores or sampling area) needed to obtain plastic concentrations within a specific error. Plastic pollution in the field was numerically simulated by placing plastic particles randomly in two dimensional space. We then took soil samples with differently sized cores, and determined plastic concentration as a function of number of cores taken. We will show how many cores are needed to determine the plastic concentrations within a given error.&lt;/p&gt;


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Grelaud ◽  
Patrizia Ziveri

&lt;p&gt;With a coastal population of nearly 150 million inhabitants, the influx of freshwater from densely populated river catchments and a contribution to 30% of the global shipping activity, the Mediterranean Sea has been recognized as one of the world most affected areas by marine litter. Moreover, the countries surrounding the region yearly attract about one third of the world tourism. Taken together, these pressures make this semi-enclosed sea an accumulation zone for marine litter. This high contamination goes hand to hand with a stream of adverse effects to marine ecosystems, public health or socio-economic costs. The beaches are one of the main land-based sources for litter to enter the oceans. The Mediterranean Sea is not an exception as during the summer, the beaches are a hotspot for leisure. This is particularly true for the Mediterranean islands, which due to their attractiveness will host a far greater population during the summer. In this study we evaluate the seasonal variation of marine litter as an effect of tourism on sandy beaches of Mediterranean islands and we assess the effectiveness of pilot actions in order to reduce the amount of marine litter.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;147 surveys were conducted in 2017 during both the low and high touristic season. For each of the eight participating islands (Mallorca, Sicily, Rab, Malta, Crete, Mykonos, Rhodes and Cyprus), three different beaches were selected: a touristic beach, a beach mainly used by locals and a remote beach. For each beach, a periodic monitoring was performed on the same fixed 100m portion. Here, any item found was collected, characterized and properly disposed of. We included the mesoplastics (0.5 &amp;#8211; 2.5cm), large microplastics (0.1 &amp;#8211; 0.5cm) and pellets (raw plastic material). In 2019, a monitoring of 11 of the selected beaches was conducted following the implementation of pilot actions (mainly awareness campaigns). To test their effectiveness, the results are compared to those of 2017.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our results show that tourism in Mediterranean island beaches is a main driver of marine litter generation. Popular beaches (touristic and locals) are clearly the most impacted sites. Every day, during the high touristic season peak (July-August), visitors will leave (i.e.: cigarette butts, drink can, etc.) or generate (i.e.: MePs and MPs) 950 &amp;#8211; 1190 items on every 100m of beach. This amount falls to 60 items for the remote beaches. At the region scale, we estimated that during July-August, visitors could be responsible for the accumulation of about 47.5 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; &amp;#177; 13.5 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; items/day on the beaches of the Mediterranean islands.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The awareness campaigns is an efficient tool to reduce the amount of litter generated by visitors on the beaches. We observed an average decrease of 52.5% of the accumulation of the items abandoned by the visitors after the implementation of the pilot actions. These encouraging results probably benefit from the growing attention of the public to the plastic pollution issue. However, this reduction has a price: the average cost of the pilot actions for the whole high season would be of 111.6 k&amp;#8364; per km of beach.&lt;/p&gt;


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Bambang Surowo

This study examines the competition between KPM versus PT Pelni in seizing the network hegemony cruise in the archipelago in 1945 to 1960 using the historical method. KPM is a major shipping company that was also founded by two major companies Rotterdamsche Lloyd (RL) and Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN) headquartered in Amsterdam the Netherlands. KPM serve scheduled regular shipping route for passengers and cargo between islands in the Dutch East Indies then more popular with the term as a post cruise between islands. KPM also play an important role to support and assist the colonial government in the process of penetration and pacification (conquest), especially in areas outside Java. On the other hand, PT PELNI established by the Indonesian government in the framework of the national development of a country that is still young, especially in the field of shipping. PELNI as well as KPM, also serves as centraal vervoersapparaat. Therefore, the government considers KPM c.q PELNI that dominate the cruise between islands in Indonesia are competitors and inhibitors of national development in the field of shipping. Post-transfer of sovereignity and the cancellation of the agreement KMB unilaterally by President Sukarno on May 3, 1956 resulted in the position of Dutch companies including KPM are at stake. This was exacerbated by the outbreak of the conflict between Indonesia and the Netherlands on Dutch New Guinea or West Papua, Indonesia implement the program so that the overall nationalization of the Dutch companies, including KPM.


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