A5073077191- Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Arctic and Russian Policy Studies
- Indigenous Studies and Ecology
- Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Polar Research and Ecology
British Antarctic Survey
2020-2025
University of Exeter
2020-2024
Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung
2023
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
2023
This study investigated the distribution of plastic debris from Atlantic portion Sub-Antarctic to Antarctic Peninsula. region is home some highest concentrations zooplankton biomass but also threatened by increasing shipping traffic fishing and growing tourism market. Samples were collected using a surface-towed neuston net during Austral summer 2018, aboard RRS James Clark Ross. Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry it was found that 45.6% particles isolated seawater samples...
As the remote Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) becomes increasingly connected to rest of world, there is an impetus monitor possible impact this connectivity. The potential for increases in localised sources plastic pollution resulting from increasing navigability north has yet be explored. Here we investigate microplastic samples which were collected aboard Coast Guard Ship (CCGS) Amundsen summer 2018 using underway pump and a filtration system with Fourier transform infrared analysis. We...
Antarctica is the least populated place on Earth, but frozen continent and its surrounding Southern Ocean are still affected by human activities. Scientists have found large pieces of plastic such as fishing nets, microscopic-sized plastic, too. Some plastics can be hundreds times smaller than a grain sand, these called nanoplastics. The Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica, also warming faster other oceans becoming more acidic. Thus, Antarctic marine animals that lived in an untouched, stable...
<title>Abstract</title> Microplastic pollution in remote inland Antarctica is largely unknown. This study explored the plastic footprint of snow from Antarctic camps; Union Glacier, Schanz Glacier and South Pole. Refined automated FTIR techniques enabled interrogation <25 µm microplastics fibres for first time. Microplastics were pervasive (73 - 3,099 MP L-1). The majority (95%) measured <50 µm, indicating that previous microplastic reports may be underestimated, due to analytical...