Caracterización de microplásticos con espectroscopia de infrarrojo medio y módulo ATR presentes en el ambiente marino de la Isla Puná

Abstract

Plastic production during the last 50 years has skyrocketed considerably, reaching more than 380 million tons in 2015. The usefulness of plastics is unquestionable, although the pollution they produce has become a worldwide problem. The presence of plastics in seas and oceans affects marine fauna and consequently human beings as they infiltrate our food chain. Microplastics (MPs) are plastics with small particle size (≤ 5 mm) that can accumulate toxic substances on their surface and when present in the environment they figure as a pollutant of great potential risk. Studies worldwide have found microplastics in all types of waters; however, studies in our country are scarce and limited. The focus of this research consisted of extracting and characterizing MPs present in water and sediment samples collected around estuaries and coastal areas of Puná Island, Guayas. The samples were filtered, quantified and classified by morphology and color using a spectroscope. The results obtained were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics. It was found that the most contaminated samples were the waters of the estuaries. In addition, the colors that stood out the most were transparent, silver and black, as well as pellet (81 %) and fragment (46 %) morphologies. Finally, analysis of the FTIR bands indicated the presence of polyamides, polycarbonate, polystyrene and polypropylene.