ArticleEnvironmental science & technology2022
Can a Sediment Core Reveal the Plastic Age? Microplastic Preservation in a Coastal Sedimentary Record.
Article in Environmental science & technology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spatial distribution of microplastics in Persian Gulf marine environments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exponentially increasing microplastic accumulation in an urban estuary: insights from the Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island seafloor.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2025Article
- The effect of maternal sodium ρ-perfluorous nonenoxybenzene sulfonate exposure on the gut microbiota in dams and offspring.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Diving into the Depths: Uncovering Microplastics in Norwegian Coastal Sediment Cores.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Microplastic in Dredged Sediments: From Databases to Strategic Responses.Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology · 2024Review
- Shapes of Hyperspectral Imaged Microplastics.Environmental science & technology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The seafloor is the major sink for microplastic (MP) pollutants. However, there is a lack of robust data on the historical evolution of MP pollution in the sediment compartment, particularly the sequestration and burial rate of small MPs. By combining a palaeoceanographic approach and state-of-the-art analytical methods for MP identification down to 11 μm in size, we present the first high-resolution reconstruction of MP pollution from an undisturbed sediment core collected in the NW Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, we investigate the fate of MPs once buried in the sediments by evaluating the changes in the size distribution of the MPs and the weathering status of the polyolefins, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Our results indicate that the MP mass sequestered in the sediment compartment mimics the global plastic production from 1965 to 2016. We observed an increase in the weathering status of the polyolefins as the size decreased. However, the variability in the size and weathering status of the MPs throughout the sedimentary record indicated that these pollutants, once incorporated into sediments, remain preserved with no further degradation under conditions lacking remobilization.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.