Nature Communications (Apr 2018)

Arctic sea ice is an important temporal sink and means of transport for microplastic

  • Ilka Peeken,
  • Sebastian Primpke,
  • Birte Beyer,
  • Julia Gütermann,
  • Christian Katlein,
  • Thomas Krumpen,
  • Melanie Bergmann,
  • Laura Hehemann,
  • Gunnar Gerdts

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03825-5
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Microplastic (MP) pollution in polar regions is a growing environmental concern, yet little is known regarding the role of sea-ice as a sink and transport vector of MPs. Here, the authors show that MPs in sea-ice have no uniform polymer composition and observe unique MP patterns in different sea-ice horizons.