Experiences and potentiality of a continuous microplastic sampler: performance onboard opportunity vessels to increase oceanic sampling efforts.

Abstract

Broad scale monitoring efforts and microplastic sampling in open ocean waters are required to understand distribution, abundance and fate of these particles in the environment. For surface seawaters, towing a neuston net is the most common sampling method; however, the deployment of this infrastructure is not always possible when at sea. The underway water system of Research Vessels (RVs) has been tried for this purpose. However, method validation and recovery checks have not been thoroughly applied, and standardization is essential to ensure the intercomparability of the data reported in the different sampling efforts worldwide. This preliminary study pursues to demonstrate the potential of a continuous microplastic sam- pler as an effective method to sample microplastics in subsurface oceanic waters, allowing con- stant sampling without interfering the regular activity of the vessel in which it is set up. This is an important step that increases the chances for ocean monitoring on microplastic pollution with the use of a wider array of opportunity platforms, such as recreational vessels. To fulfil the main aim of the study, the continuous microplastic sampler was tested and improved along different research campaigns onboard research and recreational vessels in the NE Atlantic. Performed method validation proved the effectiveness for microplastic research comparing the samples taken through the intake system of the RVs and samples filtered from the Rosetta. Likewise, the abundance and distribution of microplastics found were also consistent with available literature data. Further trials are required to test the effectiveness and significant difference among the abundance and type of microplastic particles collected using different methods. Ongoing research is being carried out in collaboration with the Sailing Living Lab Project to test additional environmental and sampling factors, and improve the design of the continuous microplastic sampler for its optimal performance