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| The dunes we surveyed |
Last week was a very exciting week for me, in last weeks lab we went out to Ponce Inlet Beach and measured the height and movement of the sand dunes. We also took 1/2 cup samples of the dunes and sieved them. The purpose of us sieving the samples of sand was to analyze the sands partial sizes. We determined that the particle sizes our sieve measured were 6.3mm pebble size, 236mm gravel size, 425um medium sand size, 150um fine sand size and the last sieved we called <150um silt and clay size. As we were examining the different sieves from our west site 3 sample, we notice something that was unnatural to the sand formation process. We found a tiny plastic bead as you can see in the picture below.
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| This is the plastic bead. |
I was quit shocked about this find, because site west 3 is located on the back side of a sand dune that is proctored and we humans are not supposed to go in this area unless given permission. So this implies that the bead had to travel with the sand in part of the natural dune movement. Who really knows were this bead started its journey and how far it traveled.
On another note, I have been studying up on the methods for using the copper ampules for my research project. I will be using the Hach 890 which will be able to tell me how much copper is in the sample with the range of 0.00-5.00mg/L. Its great that it has such a wide range because the EPA says that there should not be more than 1.3mg/L in our water. I can not wait to get out in the field and take my samples to see what the copper levels in the Tomoka river are!
Did you all keep the bead? If it wasn't hollow it could've been a resin pellet which is what is used in the manufacturing process of plastic. Something I noticed yesterday while combing Daytona Beach for plastic is that all the tiny pieces (sizes of beads but flat) are behind the "No Vehicles Beyond This Point Line" up by the "dunes"/vegetation where I also thought I wouldn't be finding that much plastic, but I guess it all gets blown up in there after getting crushed by vehicles driving on the beach. I should start inspecting bird droppings....
ReplyDeleteI do not remember if we kept the bead or not, I do remember talking about keeping it but I do not have it. To me it look like it could have been a type of resin pellet. I was think wind would be more of the cause of movement because down where we were there is not as much car traffic as Daytona Beach. If it was a resin pellet and you also found some in Daytona, my first thought would be was a batch lost at sea during shipping.... But I did watch Captain Phillips last night, so I could be over thinking. Inspecting bird droppings sounds like a really good idea as well, or maybe observing the people on the beach and see if they are using anything that would contain them.
ReplyDeleteNice meeting you today! Got right on to check your comment. I actually haven't found any pellets in Daytona Beach. Finding a pellet, to me, is like someone who is metal detecting finding a gold ring - very special and exciting. I did find a couple in Ft. Pierce. I THOUGHT I would find some near Tampa because in a town up river from the port there is actually a factory that purchases plastic pellets to then make plastic products, but I didn't find any on the beach I was combing, probably wasn't close enough to the port.
DeleteI wounder if there would be any in the Melbourne cocoa area?
ReplyDeleteI probably found some there, too, would have to pull out my field notebook :). I hit Melbourne and Ft. Pierce the same day, both had a ton of what I call "ocean" plastic compared to just stuff left behind by people.
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