In recent years, microplastics have been detected in the air in a variety of remote environments. However, pollution for these tiny plastic fragments in the southern hemisphere, specifically in Antarctica, was largely unknown.
For the first time, a team headed by researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientific institution discovered the presence of snow microplastics near several camps located in remote areas of the icy continent.
For this study, specialists used a new technique that allowed them to identify plastic fragments that would measure more than 11 micrometers wide, approximately the size of a red blood cell.
After analyzing the snow samples from the camps in the Union and Shanz glaciers, near the Montes Ellsworth, and at the US Antarctic Program station in the South Pole, microplastics were found in concentrations that varied between 73 and 3,099 particles per liter of snow.
95 % of these particles measured less than 50 micrometers in diameter, the equivalent of the size of most human cells. This finding, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, led specialists to suggest that the previous investigations could have overlooked the reach of microplastics contamination in the region due to the use of less sensitive detection methods.
Deciphering the source of pollution
In all three sites several types of common plastic were identified, including polyamide (used in textiles), polyethylene terephthalate (present in bottles and containers), polyethylene and synthetic rubber.
The Oceanic Ecologist Clara Manno believes that there are “local sources of plastic contamination, at least in regard to polyamide”, which represented more than half of the microplastics discovered.
According to the expert, the polyamide could come from “coat clothes or strings and flags that were used to mark safe routes inside and around” the camps in the Union and Shanz glaciers. However, he pointed out that more research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
With current RT information
