Microplastic Particles found in East Antarctic Sea Ice

According an article published in the May 2020 issue of Marine Pollution Bulletin by researchers from Tasmania, Australia https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X20302484?via%3Dihub#! “… The durability of plastics in the marine environment has led to concerns regarding the pervasiveness of this debris in remote polar habitats. Microplastic (MP) enrichment in East Antarctic sea ice was measured in one ice core sampled from coastal land-fast sea ice … 96 MP particles were identified … The most common MP polymers (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyamide) were consistent with those most frequently represented in the majority of marine MP studies. Sea-ice MP concentrations were positively related with chlorophyll a, suggesting living biomass could assist in incorporating MPs in sea ice. Our preliminary results indicate that sea ice has the potential to serve as a reservoir for MP debris in the Southern Ocean, which may have consequences for Southern Ocean food webs and biogeochemistry …” #MicroPlastic #PlasticWaste #FoodPackaging #SingleUsePlastic