PMID- 34434671
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20210827
IS  - 2167-8359 (Print)
IS  - 2167-8359 (Electronic)
IS  - 2167-8359 (Linking)
VI  - 9
DP  - 2021
TI  - Disintegration half-life of biodegradable plastic films on different marine beach 
      sediments.
PG  - e11981
LID - 10.7717/peerj.11981 [doi]
LID - e11981
AB  - The seafloor is considered the major sink for plastic debris in the world's 
      oceans. Biodegradable polymers are available on the market as a substitute for 
      conventional plastic and could potentially end up in the same environment. To 
      gain more insight into the effects of different sediments on the degradation rate 
      of biodegradable plastic we performed two iterative seawater tank experiments. 
      First, to test the effect of sediment grain size, film of Mater-Bi HF03V, a blend 
      of thermoplastic starch and biodegradable polyesters, was placed on the surface 
      of mud as well as on four different grain size fractions of beach sand. 
      Disintegration half-life was shortest on mud (139 days) and increased with the 
      grain size of the beach sediment fractions (63-250 microm: 296 days; 250-500 microm: 310 
      days; 500-1,000 microm: 438 days; >1,000 microm: 428 days). We assume that the higher 
      surface-to-volume ratio in fine sediment compared to coarse sediment led to a 
      higher bacterial abundance and thus to faster disintegration rates. In a 
      follow-up experiment, the <500 microm fraction of sediment from four different 
      beaches around Isola d'Elba, Italy, was used to test plastic disintegration as 
      above. Additionally, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB, MIREL P5001) was used as a 
      positive control and high-density polyethylene (HD-PE) as a negative control. No 
      disintegration was observed for HD-PE. Mater-Bi HF03V and PHB disintegrated 
      significantly differently on sediment from different sites, with half-lives of 
      Mater-Bi HF03V ranging from 72 to 368 days and of PHB from 112 to 215 days. Here, 
      the half-life was shortest on slightly coarser sediment and at potentially 
      anthropogenically impacted sites. We assume that the effect of the grain size on 
      the disintegration rate was masked by other parameters influencing the microbial 
      community and activity. Understanding the parameters driving biodegradation is 
      key to reliably report the range of disintegration rates occurring under the 
      various conditions in different ecosystems.
CI  - (c) 2021 Eich et al.
FAU - Eich, Andreas
AU  - Eich A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-9547-6487
AD  - HYDRA Marine Sciences GmbH, Buhl, Germany.
FAU - Weber, Miriam
AU  - Weber M
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7959-4731
AD  - HYDRA Marine Sciences GmbH, Buhl, Germany.
FAU - Lott, Christian
AU  - Lott C
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-4799-6012
AD  - HYDRA Marine Sciences GmbH, Buhl, Germany.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20210810
PL  - United States
TA  - PeerJ
JT  - PeerJ
JID - 101603425
PMC - PMC8362673
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Biodegradable plastic
OT  - Biodegradation
OT  - Degradation
OT  - Half-life
OT  - Marine
OT  - PHB
OT  - Plastic
OT  - Pollution
OT  - Polyhydroxybutyrate
OT  - Sediment
COIS- Novamont S.p.A. (Novara, Italy) funded the study. No influence on the design and 
      analysis of the experiments nor on the manuscript was taken by Novamont. Andreas 
      Eich, Miriam Weber, and Christian Lott are employed by HYDRA Marine Sciences 
      GmbH.
EDAT- 2021/08/27 06:00
MHDA- 2021/08/27 06:01
PMCR- 2021/08/10
CRDT- 2021/08/26 06:15
PHST- 2021/03/29 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/07/25 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/08/26 06:15 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/08/27 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/08/27 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2021/08/10 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 11981 [pii]
AID - 10.7717/peerj.11981 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PeerJ. 2021 Aug 10;9:e11981. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11981. eCollection 2021.