Physical processes matters! Recommendations for sampling microplastics in estuarine waters based on hydrodynamics.

Monitoring the abundance and characteristics of microplastics in estuarine waters is crucial for understanding the fate of microplastics at the land-sea continuum, and for developing policies and legislation to mitigate associated risks. However, if protocols to monitor microplastic pollution in ocean waters or beach sediments are well established, they may not be adequate for estuarine environments, due to the complex 3D hydrodynamics. In this note, we review and discuss sampling methods and strategies in relation to the main environmental forcing, estuarine hydrodynamics, and their spatio-temporal scales of variability.

Microplastics in a salt-wedge estuary: Vertical structure and tidal dynamics.

The abundance and distribution of microplastics in estuaries have been barely documented, and generally without accounting for the vertical structure in the water column. This study presents the very first data on the occurrence and distribution of microplastics in the Adour Estuary, SW France. The experimental data set was complemented by numerical simulations to gain understanding of the behaviour of suspended microplastics.

Effects of anoxia on mitochondrial biogenesis in rice shoots: modification of in organello translation characteristics.

Shoots of germinating rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings are able to grow under anoxia and to withstand long periods of anoxic treatment. Mitochondria were purified from aerobically germinated and anaerobically treated rice shoots by differential and isopycnic centrifugation and were found to consist of two subpopulations.