Benavides, Roberto

Boldrini, Amedeo

Esposito, Chiara

Galgani, Luisa

Kalantzi, Ioanna

Loiselle, Steven A.

Magiopoulos, Iordanis

Pitta, Paraskevi

Polvani, Alessio

Steinhoff, Tobias

Tsapakis, Manolis

Tsiola, Anastasia

Tsotskou, Anastasia

Tzempelikou, Eleni

English

Archivio della Ricerca - Università degli Studi di Siena

EGU24-19544, updated on 27 Nov 2024https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu24-19544EGU General Assembly 2024© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed underthe Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.Plastics Affect the Ocean's Uptake of Atmospheric CO₂ across theMarine Boundary LayerLuisa Galgani1, Eleni Tzempelikou2, Ioanna Kalantzi3, Anastasia Tsiola3, Manolis Tsapakis3,Paraskevi Pitta3, Chiara Esposito4, Anastasia Tsotskou3, Iordanis Magiopoulos3, RobertoBenavides5, Tobias Steinhoff5, Amedeo Boldrini1, Alessio Polvani1, and Steven A. Loiselle11University of Siena, Dpt. of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Siena, Italy (luisa.galgani@unisi.it)2Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Anavyssos, Greece3Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece4Lake Ecology, Department of Ecoscience and WATEC Aarhus University Centre for Water Technology, Aarhus University,Denmark5GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, GermanyMicroplastics can support biomass production by acting as substrates for microbial activity. Thismay imply potentially relevant effects for the sea-surface microlayer, the interface mediating air-sea gas exchange and where biological organic compounds can accumulate.We tested this hypothesis by using six large scale mesocosms to simulate a future “high plasticocean”. During the course of a 12-days experiment, we explored microbial organic matterdynamics in the sea-surface microlayer in the presence and absence of microplastics in theunderlying water. We used as a reference a known number of polystyrene beads of 30 µmdiameter and compared the three treatment mesocosms to an equal number of plastic-freecontrol mesocosms.The presence of microplastics represented a spur for microbial activity, and in the treatedmesocosms biomass production was enhanced, leading to an increased concentration of organiccompounds accumulating in the sea-surface microlayer. This initial boost in biological productivityled to a ∼3 % reduction of dissolved CO₂ in the underlying water, which we could imaginepotentially reversed once the degradation phase took off. Based on our results and on otherrecent studies, we will discuss potential interference of plastic with the composition of the sea-surface microlayer, with direct and indirect impacts on the uptake of CO₂ and the marine carboncycle. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Plastics Affect the Ocean's Uptake of Atmospheric CO2 across the Marine Boundary Layer

https://usiena-air.unisi.it/bitstream/11365/1279127/1/EGU24-19544-print-3.pdf

Plastics Affect the Ocean's Uptake of Atmospheric CO2 across the Marine Boundary Layer

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