Particle Tracking of Microplastics in Aquatic Environments

Abstract

Microplastics in aquatic environments emerged as a leading environmental problem in recent times. The identification, standardisation and removal of those is a seri ous concern. This study aims at discussing the effect of biofouling on the vertical transport of plastic particles in laminar and turbulent flow conditions. The effects of turbulence are studied with a stochastic approach. All the studies are based on the Lagrangian Particle Tracking approach to track the trajectory of particles due to vertical transport accounting the seawater parameters of North Pacific. The effect of biofouling and the defouling is studied on both buoyant and non-buoyant particles. In the turbulent flow condition, regardless of the type of plastic, for smaller radii all plastics behaved similar as the statistics shows that the turbulent fluctuations are dominant and the sediment velocity of the particle is negligible, thus meaning the particles behaves more as tracers