Les feuilles d’arbres, un outil pour l’analyse des micro-plastiques dans l’atmosphère.

International audienc

La microcouche de surface, une zone d’accumulation de micro- et nanoplastiques insouçonnée.

International audienc

Assessment of nanoplastic extraction from natural samples for quantification purposes

International audiencePlastic pollution poses an increasing threat to the whole ecosystem. Scientists recently realized that this pollution also occurs at the nanoscale. Nanoplastic monitoring is a real challenge and published data are scarce. Above the use of appropriate analytical instrument, one main obstacle is to quantitatively isolate the nanoplastic from larger particles in real samples. We propose a method based on the monitoring of polystyrene nanospheres following the polystyrene intrinsic fluorescence to assess the losses. Polymer-based membranes were tested for filtration, ultrafiltration and dialysis; important losses were observed. The isolation of the colloidal fraction is proposed using stainless steel grid with reduction of the losses. The ability of glass fiber filters to trap the nanoplastic was also evaluated as a mean to transfer the particle to the analytical instrument. As an illustration, a river sample was processed with the recommended protocol and the colloidal content monitored by nanoparticle tracking analysis. As a conclusion, we insist on the fact that it is absolutely necessary to evaluate nanoplastic extraction efficiencies for quantification purposes and we give recommendations to limit losses

Mission Tara Microplastics: a holistic set of protocols and data resources for the field investigation of plastic pollution along the land-sea continuum in Europe

Abstract The Tara Microplastics mission was conducted for 7 months to investigate plastic pollution along nine major rivers in Europe—Thames, Elbe, Rhine, Seine, Loire, Garonne, Ebro, Rhone, and Tiber. An extensive suite of sampling protocols was applied at four to five sites on each river along a salinity gradient from the sea and the outer estuary to downstream and upstream of the first heavily populated city. Biophysicochemical parameters including salinity, temperature, irradiance, particulate matter, large and small microplastics (MPs) concentration and composition, prokaryote and microeukaryote richness, and diversity on MPs and in the surrounding waters were routinely measured onboard the French research vessel Tara or from a semi-rigid boat in shallow waters. In addition, macroplastic and microplastic concentrations and composition were determined on river banks and beaches. Finally, cages containing either pristine pieces of plastics in the form of films or granules, and others containing mussels were immersed at each sampling site, 1 month prior to sampling in order to study the metabolic activity of the plastisphere by meta-OMICS and to run toxicity tests and pollutants analyses. Here, we fully described the holistic set of protocols designed for the Mission Tara Microplastics and promoted standard procedures to achieve its ambitious goals: (1) compare traits of plastic pollution among European rivers, (2) provide a baseline of the state of plastic pollution in the Anthropocene, (3) predict their evolution in the frame of the current European initiatives, (4) shed light on the toxicological effects of plastic on aquatic life, (5) model the transport of microplastics from land towards the sea, and (6) investigate the potential impact of pathogen or invasive species rafting on drifting plastics from the land to the sea through riverine systems

The hog-badger is not an edentate: Systematics and evolution of the genus Arctonyx (Mammalia: Mustelidae)

10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00416.xZoological Journal of the Linnean Society1542353-385ZJLS