Microplastics as a chronostratigraphic indicator in the sediments of the Urft reservoir

微塑料作为 Urft 水库沉积物中的年代地层指标

• 批准号: 496558992
• 负责人: Privatdozent Dr. Georg Stauch
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Geographie und Geologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/496558992?language=en
• 关键词: Microplastics; chronostratigraphic; indicator; sediments; Urft

Fluvial systems in Central Europe, but also worldwide, have been subject to rapid change in recent decades to centuries. Changes in land use but also climatic changes have led to drastic alterations in the sediment balance and runoff patterns. However, for the identification and quantification of geomorphological changes in recent decades, suitable geochronological markers are essential. These markers are important either to quantify changes in the spatial and the temporal domain but also to disentangle natural and anthropogenic geomorphological processes. In this context, the occurrence of plastics or microplastics in sediments has been intensively discussed for several years. Microplastics are purely anthropogenic and have been used on a massive scale worldwide since about 1950. However, so far there are only a few studies that consistently applied this concept. Therefore, this project investigates the extent to which microplastics can be used as chronostratigraphic markers in fluvial sediments.The sediments of the Urft reservoir offer an excellent opportunity to test microplastics as a chronostratigraphic marker. The Urft dam was built in 1905. The resulting lake has a length of 12 km and a maximum volume of 45.5 million km³. In November 2020, it was almost completely drained for maintenance work. In cooperation with the Eifel-Rur Water Board, the reservoir sediments were intensively sampled. The detailed spatial recording of the sediment body was carried out by means of drone survey. A total of 10 cores with a length of up to 4 m were obtained. For one of the cores, a chronology of the sediments was established based on caesium-137. The first occurrence of caesium-137, which marks the beginning of worldwide nuclear weapons testing from 1952, is found at a depth of 240 cm. This makes it possible to determine the lower limit of microplastics in the sediments over several cores and to classify them precisely in time.In a further step, the different polymers are examined in more detail. Since different types of polymers were developed at various times, they were also introduced into the environment at different times. The investigations at the Urft will now show whether differences in the time of entry are reflected in the sediments and whether plastic can thus also be used for precise dating after the year 1950.The aim of the project is to record microplastics in the sediments of the Urft reservoir in detail, both spatially and temporally, and thus to provide new impulses for the use of plastics as an independent dating method in geomorphological-sedimentological research.

近几十年到几个世纪以来，中欧乃至全世界的河流系统都经历了快速变化。土地利用的变化以及气候变化导致了沉积物平衡和径流模式的急剧变化。然而，为了识别和量化近几十年来的地貌变化，合适的年代学标记至关重要。这些标记对于量化空间和时间域的变化非常重要，而且对于理清自然和人为地貌过程也很重要。在这种背景下，沉积物中塑料或微塑料的出现已经被深入讨论了几年。微塑料纯粹是人为的，自 1950 年左右以来已在全球范围内大规模使用。然而，到目前为止，只有少数研究一致应用了这一概念。因此，该项目研究了微塑料在河流沉积物中可用作年代地层标记的程度。Urft 水库的沉积物为测试微塑料作为年代地层标记提供了绝佳的机会。乌尔夫特大坝建于 1905 年。由此形成的湖泊长 12 公里，最大容量为 4550 万立方米。 2020年11月，由于维护工作，它几乎完全排空。与埃菲尔鲁尔水务局合作，对水库沉积物进行了集中采样。通过无人机勘测对沉积体进行了详细的空间记录。总共获得了 10 个长度达 4 m 的磁芯。对于其中一个岩心，根据铯 137 建立了沉积物年代学。铯 137 的首次出现是在 240 厘米深处发现的，这标志着 1952 年全球核武器试验的开始。这使得确定多个岩心沉积物中微塑料的下限并及时对它们进行精确分类成为可能。下一步，将更详细地检查不同的聚合物。由于不同类型的聚合物是在不同时期开发的，因此它们也在不同时期被引入到环境中。 Urft的调查现在将表明沉积物中是否反映了进入时间的差异，以及塑料是否也可以用于1950年后的精确年代测定。该项目的目的是在空间和时间上详细记录Urft水库沉积物中的微塑料，从而为在地貌-沉积学研究中使用塑料作为独立的年代测定方法提供新的推动力。