White and wonderful? Microplastics prevail in snow from the Alps to the Arctic

By Melanie Bergmann, Sophia Mützel, S. Primpke, M. Tekman, J. Trachsel, G. Gerdts. Science Advances, 2019

1,098 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We detect microplastics in European and Arctic snow, highlighting the importance of atmospheric transport as a pathway. Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous, and considerable quantities prevail even in the Arctic; however, there are large knowledge gaps regarding pathways to the North. To assess whether atmospheric transport plays a role, we analyzed snow samples from ice floes in Fram Strait. For comparison, we investigated snow samples from remote (Swiss Alps) and populated (Bremen, Bavaria) European sites. MPs were identified by Fourier transform infrared imaging in 20 of 21 samples. The MP concentration of Arctic snow was significantly lower (0 to 14.4 × 103 N liter−1) than European snow (0.19 × 103 to 154 × 103 N liter−1) but still substantial. Polymer composition varied strongly, but varnish, rubber, polyethylene, and polyamide dominated overall. Most particles were in the smallest size range indicating large numbers of particles below the detection limit of 11 μm. Our data highlight that atmospheric transport and deposition can be notable pathways for MPs meriting more research.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/836609dc37e8c3997459fdf5d42c223b7cacc757

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomaterials

1. A. Lehmann
2. J. Bergmann
3. A. Wulf
4. Linshan Feng
5. E. Leifheit
6. D. Levin
7. Parveen Sharma
8. Z. Montazer

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. A. Lehmann
2. J. Bergmann
3. A. Wulf
4. Linshan Feng
5. E. Leifheit
6. Z. Montazer
7. Matthias C. Rillig

In Pollution

1. A. Lehmann
2. J. Bergmann
3. A. Wulf
4. Linshan Feng
5. E. Leifheit
6. D. Levin
7. Parveen Sharma
8. Z. Montazer

Citations in the corpus

• The “Plastisphere” of Biodegradable Plastics Is Characterized by Specific Microbial Taxa of Alpine and Arctic Soils (2020, background): “Plastic pollution has even been reported in remote areas of the Swiss Alps and the Arctic (Ambrosini et al., 2019; Bergmann et al., 2019).”
• Microbial and Enzymatic Degradation of Synthetic Plastics (2020, background): “As a result of their massive accumulation in municipal waste systems, micro- and nano-sized plastic particles are now ubiquitous in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (Álvarez-Hernández et al., 2019; Bergmann et al., 2019).”
• Contributions of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in microplastic pollution research: A review (2020, methodology): “FTIR spectra of different polymers are covered in this review to illustrate the key features involved in spectral interpretation and its application for the analysis of MPs.”
• Microplastic fiber and drought effects on plants and soil are only slightly modified by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (2020, background): “(Cole et al., 2011; Eerkes-Medrano et al., 2015; Machado et al., 2018a; Bergmann et al., 2019) and can potentially affect ecosystems and biodiversity.”
• Presence of nanoplastics in rural and remote surface waters (2021, background): “We therefore assume that PS is transported to the site via aerial deposition; other studies have concluded that this is a viable transport pathway for plastics to reach remote sites [12, 14, 58].”