Plastics have "occupied" the Arctic: Research shows that Arctic ice cores contain a large amount of microplastics
Beijing, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- According to foreign media reports, a U.S.-led research team has found a large number of microplastics in ice cores drilled in the Arctic, showing that even the most remote waters on Earth cannot escape the threat of plastic pollution.
According to reports, from July 18 to August 4, 2019, researchers aboard the Swedish icebreaker "Auden" in the Northwest Passage connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, launched an 18-day research mission. They used helicopters to land on multiple ice floes and drill for ice core samples.
From a distance, Arctic sea ice appears to be pure white and pristine, noted Strok, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island who worked on the study. "But when we get up close and look at it with the right tools, it's clear that the sea ice is contaminated... It felt like I'd been punched in the stomach."
The research team drilled 18 ice core samples, each two metres long, from four sites in Lancaster Sound in northern Canada. They had expected the level of Marine plastic pollution in such remote waters to be relatively mild, but beads and filaments of all shapes and sizes were evident in the ice cores. "The amount and scale of plastic is considerable," said Luce, an oceanographer at the University of Rhode Island who led the study. The research team next plans to further analyze the collected samples to learn more about the harm plastic can do to large Marine mammals such as fish, seabirds and whales.
A separate study released by German and Swiss scientists on the 14th showed that in addition to traveling long distances with sea water, microplastics may also be blown through the air to the most remote parts of the world, and then dumped on the ground during snow. After analyzing snow samples taken from the Arctic, the Swiss Alps and Germany, the Helmholtzskill team found far more microplastics than they had expected.
One sample of snow from Bavaria in Germany had more than 150,000 microplastics per litre, the most of any sample. Another sample from Svalbard, Norway, had 11,100 microplastics per litre.
The two studies highlight the magnitude and scope of the plastic waste problem. Earlier in 2019, US explorers also found plastic waste in the Mariana Trench, the world's deepest. The United Nations estimates that about 100 million metric tons of plastic have been dumped into the ocean so far.