Читать книгу Plastic and Microplastic in the Environment - Группа авторов - Страница 47

Due to wide distribution and unmanaged dumping (some through rivers) in the ocean, MP is a common ailment. However, European countries are more prone to this problem because they have busy sea routes as well as industries near coastal areas. The MPs are added to the ocean from terrestrial sources along with the secondary MPs from larger submerged plastics. Ballast water from ships release huge amounts of MPs. Those MPs are hotspots of toxic chemicals, pathogens, harmful algal bloom, etc. (Naik et al. 2019). Microplastic is of serious concern due to its wide distribution from pelagic to benthic marine biota (Thompson et al. 2009). These are a great matter of concern as they are affecting every segment of the ecosystem. They become attached to the planktons and cause disturbances in performing photosynthesis, and make a film over the water surface and provide the breeding ground for bacterial pathogens. The transfer of MPs from one trophic level to the next is a big concern. Another serious threat is the biomagnification of MPs along with the associated chemicals to the successive trophic level (Walkinshaw et al. 2020). The associated chemicals of MPs have a large area‐to‐volume ratio, which absorbs hydrophobic pollutants from the surrounding marine environment (Figure 3.1) (Smith et al. 2018). The most serious threat is of bioaccumulation of heavy metal in the presence of micro MPs at every trophic level of food chain, and which may lead to biomagnification of toxic heavy metals among the higher‐level organism in food chain, which have a high probability of being eaten by the human population.