Keith Cooper, study co-author and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, showed that microplastics led to abnormal growth and heart defects in larval zebrafish during lab testing. It's not known whether the plastic particles themselves or the chemicals in them were responsible.
The researchers, who sampled 15 locations in the Raritan River and 10 locations in the Passaic River, found densities of about 28,000 to more than 3 million plastic particles per square kilometer. That does not include the tiniest pieces too small for the nets to capture. The most frequently recovered microplastics (38 percent) were fragments from larger plastic items, followed by foam from polystyrene, fibers and filaments, film from broken-down bags and wrappers, and small pellets. Most of the collected microplastics (71 percent) were 1 to 4.5-plus millimeters long, smaller than a grain of rice.
The study found that Passaic River densities were 10 times greater than in the Raritan River, which may be due to the greater population density in the highly urbanized Passaic River watershed. Sources of microplastics may include industrial, municipal or stormwater outfalls discharging into the rivers or their tributaries, [Center for Urban Environmental Sustainability co-director Beth] Ravit said.
"The environmental ramifications, such as how microplastics might move through food chains and how associated compounds might accumulate in organisms, are not yet known," she said. "But scientists are finding microplastics in finfish and shellfish."
Study co-authors at Rutgers included Gina Moreno, an environmental sciences graduate student in the School of Graduate Studies; Brian Buckley, executive director of laboratories at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute; Dayvonn Jones in the Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Program; and former undergraduates Daniel Baron and Amy Hsieh.
Read the full article at the SEBS/NJAES Newsroom
Read the research article at the AIMS Environmental Science