A recent paper in PLOS One reports that microplastics collected with natural ocean organic particles can release carbon during combustion that is indistinguishable from natural organic carbon. The authors show that, in routine laboratory tests, plastic carbon can be recorded as if it came from living or once-living material.
Researchers applied analytical tools commonly used to measure carbon content in water and sediment. They calculated the carbon yield from both microplastic contaminants and from sedimentary organic matter. The work suggests that many measurements of particulate organic carbon may be unintentionally impacted by microplastics.
The study notes common contamination routes such as microfibers from clothing and plastic particles from sampling, storage and processing gear. The authors call for a re-evaluation of best practices for processing organic samples for carbon analysis. The research received partial support from grants by the National Science Foundation.
Difficult words
- microplastic — very small pieces of plastic in environmentmicroplastics
- combustion — the process of burning something to make heat
- indistinguishable — not possible to tell two things apart
- particulate — small solid particles in air or water
- contamination — presence of unwanted or harmful substances
- re-evaluation — the process of checking something again
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Discussion questions
- How could microplastics in everyday life affect scientific measurements of carbon?
- What small actions can people take to reduce microfibers from clothing?
- If you worked in a lab, what changes would you make to reduce contamination during sample processing?
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