THE EFFECT OF PLASTIC PARTICLES ON HEAT FLUX IN SAND

Plastic has become ubiquitous in the environment, comprising the majority of the debris found on beaches and floating debris in the open ocean. It is found in soils, lake bottoms, Antarctic seabeds, Arctic Sea ice, incorporated into bird’s nests, the stomachs of marine animals and has been found being used by hermit crabs for shells. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find a part of the Earth’s surface that is devoid of plastics. The extent of microplastic in water is being widely studied, however the effects of these in soil and beach sand is poorly understood. We looked at heat flux in various sand-microplastic mixtures to determine if microplastic could be influencing beach, soil temperature regimes. Our findings show differences in the effect of different types and percentages of plastic in diurnal temperature changes in sand mixtures.