Throughout rainy weather condition, sea spray can bring microplastics into the air. The picture was taken throughout a journey of the research vessel Heincke off the Norwegian coast in June 2021. Credit: Alvise Vianello
New research determines the structure and origins of the microplastics.
Microplastic particles can be found in the marine environment, even in the worlds most separated areas. The group studied air samples from a number of places on the Norwegian coast extending to the Arctic.
” With our research study, we provide information on the mass load of various types of plastic in the marine atmosphere for the very first time,” said Isabel Goßmann, a doctoral candidate at the University of Oldenburgs Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) and very first author of the paper. The research study group gathered the samples during an expedition with the Research Vessel Heincke in 2021.
The northern most location was Bear Island, the most southerly island of the Svalbard archipelago which lies halfway in between the archipelago and the mainlands largest island, Spitsbergen. The group utilized two different devices to collect air samples. The devices actively pumped in the air and were installed on the bow of the research study vessel at a height of twelve meters.
During rainy weather condition, sea spray can carry microplastics into the air. Microplastic particles can be found in the marine environment, even in the worlds most separated regions. Up until now, little was known about microplastic contamination levels including tire wear particles in the marine atmosphere. The team posits that plastic particles drifting near the sea surface area go into the atmosphere through sea spray and bursting air bubbles produced during stormy weather.
Microplastics discover their way into seawater by means of rivers, however also through the atmosphere– particles are cleaned out of the environment by rain.
Different types of plastics recognized
The scientists analyzed the air samples using pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. With this approach, they were able to identify and quantify the different kinds of plastics in the atmosphere through thermal deterioration and selective analysis. They then carried out model calculations and rebuilded the sources and circulation paths of the particles, each of which is simply a couple of thousandths of a millimeter in size.
The analysis revealed the omnipresence of polyester particles. Polyethylene terephthalate particles, which most likely got in the environment in the type of fabric fibers, were spotted in all samples. Other plastic types were likewise present, consisting of polypropylene polycarbonate and polystyrene.
Tire wear particles, the tiny particles abraded from tires throughout driving and specifically braking, were determined as another significant source of microplastics The scientists determined concentrations of approximately 37.5 nanograms (one nanogram = one-billionth of a gram) of microplastics per cubic meter of air.
” These contaminants are common. We discover them even in remote polar regions,” Goßmann stressed.
Previously, little was understood about microplastic pollution levels consisting of tire wear particles in the marine environment. “There are only a handful of research studies on the concentration of these pollutants in the air,” stated group leader Scholz-Böttcher. “Our design computations show that the microplastics in the marine environment come from direct sources on the land in addition to from the sea,” she included. The group posits that plastic particles drifting near the sea surface get in the environment through sea spray and breaking air bubbles produced during rainy weather.
Ships are also a source of microplastics.
Microplastics discover their method into seawater by means of rivers, but likewise through the environment– particles are rinsed of the atmosphere by rain, for example. Another prospective source is ship traffic: in an earlier study, a group led by Scholz-Böttcher demonstrated that in the open North Sea, the paint and finishes utilized on ships is the main source of microplastics. In the current research study, chemicals such as polyurethanes and epoxy resins usually utilized in paints and coatings for ships were likewise discovered in the air samples.
Reference: “Occurrence and backtracking of microplastic mass loads including tire wear particles in northern Atlantic air” by Isabel Goßmann, Dorte Herzke, Andreas Held, Janina Schulz, Vladimir Nikiforov, Christoph Georgi, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Sabine Eckhardt, Gunnar Gerdts, Oliver Wurl and Barbara M. Scholz-Böttcher, 22 June 2023, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/ s41467-023-39340-5.
In addition to scientists from the ICBM, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the Technische Universität Berlin, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) were also part of the research study group.