Currently, microplastics (MPs) occurence researches in coastal and marine animals are performed in huge amounts, but their results concerning MPs abundances are not always given with the same unity.
- From what I can tell from studies I read, most provide data using MPs/individual. There are some studies that sample in pools, and then, after ending samplings, calculate the MPs/individual data. It would be an issue if we compare MPs/individual data of two different studies: one that sampled in each individual and another that sampled in pools?
- Should a specific study provide just the MPs/individual data? I think this study it would be sort of incomplete, considering that this data would not totally reflect the abundance of animals with different sizes, weights, and possibly ages, etc.
- What is the best approach between other unities, such as MPs/g of the whole sample, MPs/g of their dry or wet weight? That are some formulas to convert samples weight for dry and/or wet. This is applicable for MPs?
I know much of that depends on the study's biological samples, and objectives, but I would enjoy reading researchers opinion about it.
Hi Victor
This article may help you:
Article Microplastics in the aquatic and terrestrial environment: so...
Dear Victor
Mostly expressed as items/m3, but you use another unites according to your specified work too!
Bear in mind microplastics could also be microscopic. You might use g or maybe in terms of density. g/cm3, for example.
The units used depend upon the objectives of the study. If the objectives are political or activist agenda, using numbers of particles gives big numbers that make a good statement with no context. Better for propaganda.
If the objective is environmental impacts measurements like mg/l or concentrations like mg/g of intestinal content. Doing the latter on a dry wt basis would indicate whether the plastic was becoming a significant fraction of fiber in the diets.
On most aquatic animals, microplastics are just inert particles that go in one end and out the other. They can strip off digestible biofilms for energy as they do from other natural digestion-resistant polymers like cellulose (part of dietary fiber).
As stated, it depends on the scope of your study and the location in the biological specimen.. That will define the measurements to be used for micro plastics
Hi Dr Victor Vasques Ribeiro . The unit used is items/m3,. See the link: Article Worldwide distribution and abundance of microplastic: How di...
Kindly, see the following link: https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/publications-files/noaa_microplastics_methods_manual.pdf
I can also add the following link: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2017/ay/c6ay02707e
@ Afef
The link provided from marinedebris.noaa.gov is very informative. thank you for that
I would use MPs/individual to compare among geographical areas and MPs/dry mass or MPs/wet mass to compare among species or individuals with different development levels.
Thanks to all for the information
Jon
Most researchers counting the numbers to calculate abundance of MPs. However, the objectives of the work, place of work and nature of samples play a key role in selection of unit to quantify the MP abundance.
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