Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2019
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V45
Höfundar / Authors: Valdís Halldórsdóttir (1) Ásta Margrét Ásmundsdóttir (1), Alessio Gomiero (2), Kjell Birger Öysæd(2)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: 1. Háskólinn á Akureyri, 2. NORCE Norway
Kynnir / Presenter: Ásta Margrét Ásmundsdóttir
There is a growing concern regarding plastic pollution, its distribution and effects on the ecosystem, both within the scientific community and among the public. Scientists have measured microplastics (plastic fragments less than 5 mm size) in almost every corner of the world, including in the marine environment, both in the sediment and the water column. The accumulation of microplastics in the food web is threatening the ecosystems health but microplastics have been detected in fish and other marine organisms as well as in birds, mammals and lately in human stool in number of publications. The sewage is an important source of microplastic pollution in the costal sea, depending on the sewage treatment, more or less of the microplastics ends up in the sea. This study is the one of first records of the occurrence and composition of microplastics in Iceland. The sampling site Eyjafjörður, is the longest fjord in Iceland, located at the north coast. Several small towns are situated by the fjord, the far biggest being Akureyri with 18.000 inhabitants. None of them has any sewage treatment installed. The samples were prepared for analysis using a density separation with Zink chloride and filtered on 1 µm glass fiber filter. A fast and sensitive method based on detection by pyrolysis GCMS was developed and adopted for the study. The results shows considerable amount of microplastics in sediments in the vicinity of the sewage outlet of Akureyri.