From the Mashpee Enterprise · July 9, 2021 · By Ryan Spencer
A study led by Javier Lloret of the Marine Biological Laboratory, published in Environmental Advances, found microplastics in salt marsh sediments at every location sampled in six Waquoit Bay estuaries and in New Bedford Harbor. Deeper cores from Timms Pond, which has no development in its watershed, and from the heavily developed Childs River showed no microplastics below layers dated to about 1950 and steady increases since. Lloret said the number of particles has doubled in the last 25 years, and accumulation rose much faster in the Childs River marsh.
Plastic fragments tracked how developed a watershed was, rising sharply once land is about half developed, while fibers from clothing and fishing gear did not, suggesting fragments come from nearby land and fibers from the wider region. Lloret said the full effects on marshes have not been measured, but other studies show microplastics can harm filter feeders such as oysters and mussels and pass up the food web, raising concern for the services salt marshes provide, from filtering nutrients to storing carbon.
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