ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1630780
This article is part of the Research TopicFate and Effects of Sediment and Emerging Pollutants in Marine and Estuarine EnvironmentsView all 10 articles
Chronological Evidence of Microplastic Accumulation and Contamination Onset in Central Baltic Sea Sediments
Provisionally accepted
Cheng Chang1*
Anna Augustsson1
Sina Shahabi-Ghahfarokhi1,2
Mahbube Rahmati-Abkenar1,3Sarah Josefsson4Lihui An5Marcelo Ketzer1- 1Department of Biology and Environmental Science, Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden
- 2Structor Miljö Öst AB, Kalmar, Sweden
- 3Stockholm Environment Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
- 4Geological Survey of Sweden, Uppsala, Sweden
- 5Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Microplastics (MPs) are a significant environmental concern due to their abundance, widespread occurrence, slow degradation rate, and toxicity. Although MPs have been found in various environments and organisms (including humans), few studies have investigated their historical accumulation in marine settings. Here we present the first chronological accumulation of MPs in Baltic Sea sediments over time. The high sediment accumulation rates (ca. 1 cm yr-1) and anoxic bottom conditions in the study area allowed for an exceptionally well-preserved record of MPs in sediment over the last 50 years. Despite potential biases and limitations associated with the methodologies (e.g., visual identification), our results suggest that MPs accumulation began in the 1970s-1980s and has continued to increase until present-day, with up to 4450 particles per kg of dry sediment. The temporal distribution of MPs in sediment is consistent with local population growth in catchment areas and global plastic production rates, highlighting the impact of human activities on MP pollution in the region.
Keywords: sediment, Baltic Sea, ocean, Microplastic, chronological accumulation
Received: 18 May 2025; Accepted: 13 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chang, Augustsson, Shahabi-Ghahfarokhi, Rahmati-Abkenar, Josefsson, An and Ketzer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Cheng Chang, cheng.chang@lnu.se
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.