Alexander Kunz

Distribution and quantity of microplastic on sandy beaches along the northern coast of Taiwan

Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous in the worlds oceans, and studies have shown macroplastic and microplastic pollution of beaches in several East Asian countries. However, to our knowledge, no study of microplastic pollution has been conducted in Taiwan yet. Therefore, we collected sand samples from four beaches along the northern coast of Taiwan in 2015 and extracted microplastic particles using a saturated NaCl solution. Microplastic particles were identified using synchrotron-based FTIR spectroscopy. We recovered 4 to 532 particles from eight 0.0125m(3) samples, with a total of 1097 particles weighing 0.771g. A negative trend between the size of the particles and their numbers was documented. We thus established that microplastic pollution was ubiquitous along Taiwans northern coast. Future research should more comprehensively sample beaches around the entirety of Taiwans coast, and special emphasis should be placed on identifying different sources and movements of microplastic.

OPTICALLY STIMULATED LUMINESCENCE DATING OF YOUNG FLUVIAL DEPOSITS OF THE MIDDLE ELBE RIVER FLOOD PLAINS USING DIFFERENT AGE MODELS

In the last few decades optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating has become an important tool in geochronological studies. The great advantage of the method, i.e. dating the depositional age of sediments directly, can be impaired by incomplete bleaching of grains. This can result in a scattered distribution of equivalent doses (DE), leading to incorrect estimation of the depositional age. Thoroughly tested protocols as well as good data analysis with adequate statistical methods are important to overcome this problem. In this study, samples from young fluvial sand and flood plain deposits from the Elbe River in northern Germany were investigated to compare its depositional ages from different age models with well-known historical dates. Coarse grain quartz (100–200 μm and 150–250 μm) and polymineral fine grains (4–11 μm) were dated using the single aliquot regenerative (SAR) dose protocol. The paleodose (DP) was calculated from the DE data set using different approaches. Results were compared with the development of the Elbe River, which is well-documented by historical records and maps covering the last 1,000 years. Depending on the statistical approach it can be demonstrated that depositional ages significantly differ from the most likely depositional age. For the investigated coarse grain quartz samples all ages calculated from the MAM-3UL, including their uncertainties, are within the historical documented age. Results of the polymineral fine grain samples are overestimating the historically documented depositional age, indicating undetectable incomplete bleaching. This study shows the importance of using an adequate statistical approach to calculate reliable OSL ages from fluvial sediments.

Type and quantity of coastal debris pollution in Taiwan: A 12-year nationwide assessment using citizen science data

Man-made coastal debris pollution is a growing concern for Taiwan. In 2004, Taiwanese environmental organizations led by the Society of Wilderness began gathering data on 19 categories of debris items collected during cleanup events. We present our analysis of the resulting 12-year dataset collated from 541 events held between October 2004 and December 2016. In total, 904,302 items weighing 131,358.3u202fkg were collected, and 63.6% and 27.2% of items were made of either plastic or plastic mixed with other materials, respectively. The five most commonly recorded debris categories were plastic shopping bags, plastic bottle caps, disposable tablewares, fishing equipment, and plastic drinking straws. We estimated that during the 12-year period on average between 3.7 and 7.9 million items weighing 560-1110u202fmetricu202ftons polluted Taiwans coastline. We offer recommendations for improving the quality of data collected during Taiwans cleanup events and report some policy changes due partly to previous reports of this dataset.