Mangrove forests act as plastic sinks
6 November 2020
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Amelia Nichele
Study highlights ability to capture carbon and microplastics.
Mangroves in the Red Sea. Credit: KAUST
A new study highlights the heavy lifting marine ecosystems do in combatting environmental issues, finding that mangrove forests efficiently capture and store microplastics in their sediments.
An international team, led by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, collected nine core samples from mangrove forests in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, finding that their sediments had a higher plastic concentration than surface waters.
“Our research brings light to the mystery of missing marine plastic to reveal that mangroves, Blue Carbon habitats, are hugely efficient at trapping plastics and burying them in their soils where they cannot harm vulnerable marine life or human consumers,” says project supervisor Carlos Duarte.
The samples also revealed a pattern of plastic sedimentation that aligns closely with the history of the global production of plastics, the researchers note in a paper in the journal Science Advances.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sciences/mangrove-forests-act-as-plastic-sinks/
