Effects of Discarded Masks on the Offshore Microorganisms during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

At 20d, 40d, and 60d, TDS, salinity, and conductivity increased in the experimental group compared with the blank group, where the increase in TDS indicates that some kind of substance has increased in the seawater, further indicating that it may be that the masks released microplastics in the seawater and increased with time, and the changes in resistance showed a decreasing trend.

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There was no significant difference in the Alpha diversity of bacterial communities among the four groups in the initial stage of the experiment, while the Alpha diversity index of the experimental group was higher than that of the water samples in the middle and later stages of the experimental exposure, and the ACE, Simpson, and Shannon indices all showed an increasing trend, which may be due to the complex interaction between microplastics and microorganisms that changed the bacterial community structure, indicating that the masks may provide an environment for microorganisms in seawater to survive and reproduce.

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