Abundance and Distribution Characteristics of Microplastics in Surface Seawaters of the Incheon/Kyeonggi Coastal Region.

Microplastics in marine environments are of emerging concern due to their widespread distribution, their ingestion by various marine organisms, and their roles as a source and transfer vector of toxic chemicals. However, our understanding of their abundance and distribution characteristics in surface seawater (SSW) remains limited. We investigated microplastics in the surface microlayer (SML) and the SSW at 12 stations near-shore and offshore of the Korean west coast, Incheon/Kyeonggi region.

Factors Influencing the Spatial Variation of Microplastics on High-Tidal Coastal Beaches in Korea.

The presence and distribution characteristics of microplastics become a big issue due to the adverse effects on marine organisms caused by not only microplastics but any incorporated and/or adsorbed pollutants. Distribution of microplastics (50- to 5000-μm size) was determined for three sandy beaches on an isolated island in a high-tidal costal region to elucidate spatial distributions in relation to beach locations. The abundances of microplastics (n = 21) measured were 56-285,673 (46,334 ± 71,291) particles/m(2) corresponding to the highest level globally.