The issue of article on Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments. Kane from Univ. of Manchester and A. Fildani of the Deep Time Institute wrote that pollution from uncontrolled human activity is occurring on a vast and unprecedented scale around the world. Anthropogenic pollution, the release of plastic into nature and particularly in the oceans, is one of the most recent and most visible effects. Plastic is generally considered to be the dominant constituent of marine litter because of its durability and the large amount that is produced. Nano and micro plastics are a particularly insidious form of anthropogenic pollutants, where Small fragments and fibers are invisible to the naked eye, but they are ingested with food and water and absorbed into the flesh of organisms. One of the most important questions here is, if some plastics can survive in terrestrial environments for> 1000 years, then how long they can survive in dark, cold, high-pressure sea trenches which are kilometers deep? Though, it is policy maker’s responsibility to take protection measures against oceans, so as to prevent further damages, the role that geoscientists play is also vital. Role includes using their in-depth perspective to address societal challenges, understanding their current seabed distribution and sediment records, using geoscientific techniques to record the downstream effects of mitigation efforts and predict the future of seabed plastic.
In short, they understand the nature of stratigraphic record and its remarkable conservation and the unique geochemical environments in deep sea sediments. Their source-to-sink approach to exploring land-sea connections can identify the sources and routes take the plastics as they traverse natural habitats and identify the context in which they are ultimately segregated and the ecosystems that they affect. It can be done by working closely with oceanographers, biologists, and chemists among others who work on the global pollution problem.
