RESEARCH & INNOVATION
THE PLASTIC AGE
Will the fossil record show what defines our times ?
BY ROBERT MONROE
JUST AS WE DIG UP EVIDENCE of what we call the Stone , Bronze and Iron Ages , when our descendants look back at our era , they may well sum us up with one word : Plastic .
In a study from Scripps Institution of Oceanography , microplastics biologist Jennifer Brandon and colleagues used coring equipment to collect seafloor sediment from the Santa Barbara Basin . With these sedimentary layers recording a history of the area , much like tree rings , they found an exponential increase in plastic fragments since the end of World War II . In fact , comparing 1945 to 2010 , when the samples were collected , researchers found evidence of 10 times as much plastic in the basin .
The sharp increase matches a rise in the rate of plastic production worldwide , as well as a surge in California ’ s coastal population . The research team noted that since the 1940s , the amount of microscopic plastics found in sediment has doubled about every 15 years .
Brandon says the discovery supports the idea of plastic accumulation being a defining signifier of the Anthropocene , a proposed new geological epoch marked by humanity ’ s effect on Earth . Specifically , the rise of plastics beginning in 1945 could serve as a marker for a time period within the Anthropocene that scientists have labeled “ the Great Acceleration .”
“ This study shows that our plastic production is being almost perfectly copied in our sedimentary record . Our love of plastic is actually being left behind in our fossil record ,” says Brandon , whose work appeared in the journal Science Advances in September .
The work is the latest of several studies to document the pervasiveness of plastic in the oceans . Ten years after Scripps researchers made the first estimate of plastic accumulation on the surface ocean near Hawaii , this June another Scripps study off the coast of Monterey , Calif ., found microplastics at depths of 1,000 meters ( 3,300 feet ) beneath the surface .
In April , an explorer visiting the deepest part of the ocean , the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean , found evidence of plastic bags at the seafloor .
Researchers at Scripps and the Jacobs School of Engineering have begun collaborating to develop technology that can detect and quantify plastic microfibers in water samples as a first step toward quantifying the presence in the world oceans . They are also partnering with industry to identify possible avenues to limit plastic pollution and develop remediation strategies .
“ Our study may have found the sediment record shows a steep exponential increase in plastics ,” Brandon says , “ but if we get creative with limiting plastic use and with remediation strategies , we can bend that curve for future generations .”
Learn more about Scripps ' latest findings regarding plastics in our oceans at tritonmag . com / plastics
12 TRITON | WINTER 2020