TY - JOUR
T1 - Tying up Loose Ends of Microplastic Pollution in the Arctic
T2 - Distribution from the Sea Surface through the Water Column to Deep-Sea Sediments at the HAUSGARTEN Observatory
AU - Tekman, Mine B.
AU - Wekerle, Claudia
AU - Lorenz, Claudia
AU - Primpke, Sebastian
AU - Hasemann, Christiane
AU - Gerdts, Gunnar
AU - Bergmann, Melanie
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the officers and crew of RV Polarstern and chief scientist of expedition PS99.2, T. Soltwedel. I. Schewe operated the multiple corer. S. Tippenhauer and S. Torres-Valdes operated the CTD. We thank G. Wegener, MPI, and MARUM for lending the pumps and S. Becker and J. Rapp for assistance with pump operations. N. Knüppel sampled and analyzed POC, POC, and TPM, E-M. Nöthig provided the dataset and gave advice on water-column processes along with M. Iversen. A. Purser helped with the language and graphical abstract. C. Peter helped with the assessment of the data in LITTERBASE. This work contributes to the Pollution Observatory of the Helmholtz-funded infrastructure program FRAM (Frontiers in Arctic Marine Research), which funded MBT and CW. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Project BASEMAN—Defining the baselines and standards for microplastics analyses in European waters; BMBF Grant 03F0734A) funded G.G. and S.P. C.L. was funded by a Ph.D. scholarship of the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), and M.B. and C.H. were funded by the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/4/7
Y1 - 2020/4/7
N2 - Recent studies have shown that despite its remoteness, the Arctic region harbors some of the highest microplastic (MP) concentrations worldwide. Here, we present the results of a sampling campaign to assess the vertical distribution of MP particles (>11 μm) at five stations of the HAUSGARTEN observatory. Water column samples were taken with large volume pumps by filtering 218-561 L of seawater at two to four depth strata (near-surface, ∼300 m, ∼1000 m, and above seafloor), and sediment samples were taken with a multiple corer. MP concentrations in the water column ranged between 0 and 1287 N m-3 and in the sediment from 239 to 13â»331 N kg-1. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) imaging with automated data analysis showed that polyamide (39%) and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (23%) were the most abundant polymers within the water samples and polyethylene-chlorinated (31%) in sediments. MPs ≤ 25 μm accounted for more than half of the synthetic particles in every sample. The largest MP particle recorded was in the 200 μm size class. The concentrations of fibers were not reported, as fiber detection by FTIR imaging was not available at the time of analyses. Two- A nd three-dimensional simulations of particle transport trajectories suggest different pathways for certain polymer types. A positive correlation between MP size composition and particulate organic carbon indicates interactions with biological processes in the water column.
AB - Recent studies have shown that despite its remoteness, the Arctic region harbors some of the highest microplastic (MP) concentrations worldwide. Here, we present the results of a sampling campaign to assess the vertical distribution of MP particles (>11 μm) at five stations of the HAUSGARTEN observatory. Water column samples were taken with large volume pumps by filtering 218-561 L of seawater at two to four depth strata (near-surface, ∼300 m, ∼1000 m, and above seafloor), and sediment samples were taken with a multiple corer. MP concentrations in the water column ranged between 0 and 1287 N m-3 and in the sediment from 239 to 13â»331 N kg-1. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) imaging with automated data analysis showed that polyamide (39%) and ethylene-propylene-diene rubber (23%) were the most abundant polymers within the water samples and polyethylene-chlorinated (31%) in sediments. MPs ≤ 25 μm accounted for more than half of the synthetic particles in every sample. The largest MP particle recorded was in the 200 μm size class. The concentrations of fibers were not reported, as fiber detection by FTIR imaging was not available at the time of analyses. Two- A nd three-dimensional simulations of particle transport trajectories suggest different pathways for certain polymer types. A positive correlation between MP size composition and particulate organic carbon indicates interactions with biological processes in the water column.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083002960&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.9b06981
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.9b06981
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 32142614
AN - SCOPUS:85083002960
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 54
SP - 4079
EP - 4090
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 7
ER -