I am coming across some synthetic fibres in the marine plankton samples collected from the water column approximately 10 deep and preserved in formalin. Some of these fibres (such as polyester and acrylic) are known to have been introduced into the marine environment as result of anthropogenic activities. But these fibres are also used in clothing and other fabrics and could also easily introduced into samples from the lab environment.
I was wondering if there is a way to distinguish the ones coming from the marine environment through some sort of chemical signature or trace elements unique to the marine environment?
To begin with, i'll advice that it is the responsibility of a good scientist to handle confounding factors to the barest minimum, even if it means excluding the use of some fabrics from the lab.
Second, fibres from the marine environment will certainly have trace-metal associations or adsorbed metals that depict the environment it came from unlike fibres that originated from a terrestrial environment.
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