Interactions of Microplastics and Methane Seepage in the Deep-Sea Environment

Microplastics(MPs)are important exempla of the Anthropocene and are exerting an increasing impact on Earth’s carbon cycle.The huge imbalance between the MPs floating on the marine surface and those that are estimated to have been introduced into the ocean necessitates a detailed assessment of marine MP sinks.Here,we demonstrate that cold seep sediments,which are characterized by methane fluid seepage and a chemosynthetic ecosystem,effectively capture and accommodate small-scale(<100μm)MPs,with 16 types of MPs being detected.The abundance of MPs in the surface of the sediment is higher in methane-seepage locations than in non-seepage areas.Methane seepage is beneficial to the accumulation,fragmentation,increased diversity,and aging of MPs.In turn,the rough surfaces of MPs contribute to the sequestration of the electron acceptor ferric oxide,which is associated with the anaerobic oxidation of methane(AOM).The efficiency of the AOM determines whether the seeping methane(which has a greenhouse effect 83 times greater than that of CO_(2)over a 20-year period)can enter the atmosphere,which is important to the global methane cycle,since the deep-sea environment is regarded as the largest methane reservoir associated with natural gas hydrates.

Analysis of the temporal and spatial distribution of water quality in China＇s major river basins, and trends between 2005 and 2010

In this study, based on environmental quality monitoring data on 22 pollutants from 490 control sections, we analyzed the spatial distribution and temporal changes of water quality in ten Chinese river basins （watersheds） to reveal the trends from 2005 to 2010. We used a comprehensive water pollution index （WPI） and the proportions of this index accounted for by the three major pollutants to analyze how economic development has influenced water quality. Higher values of the index represent more serious pollution. We found that WPI was much higher for the Hai River Basin （1.83 to 5.60 times the averages in other regions）. In the Yangtze River Basin, WPI increased from upstream to downstream. The indices of some provinces toward the middle of a basin, such as Hebei Province in the Hal River Basin, Shanxi Province in the Yellow River Basin, and Anhui Province in the Huai River Basin, were higher than those of upstream and downstream provinces. In the Songhua, Liao, and South- east river basins, WPI decreased during the study period： in 2010, it decreased by 33.9%, 44.3%, and 67.2%, respectively, compared with the 2005 value. In the Pearl River, Southwest, and Inland river basins, WPI increased by 23.1%, 47.7%, and 38.5% in 2010, compared with 2005. A comparison of WPI with the GDP of each province showed that the water pollution generated by economic development was lightest in northwestern, southwestern, and northeastern China, and highest in central and eastern China, and that the water environment in some coastal regions were improving. However, some provinces （e.g., Shanxi Province） were seriously polluted.