Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget
To better understand unexpectedly low plastic loads at the ocean’s surface compared with inputs, unidentified sinks must be located. Here, we present the microplastic (MP) budget for multi-compartments in the western Arctic Ocean (WAO) and demonstrate that Arctic sediments serve as important current...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 |
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craaas:10.1126/sciadv.add2348 2024-10-06T13:45:47+00:00 Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget Kim, Seung-Kyu Kim, Ji-Su Kim, So-Young Song, Nan-Seon La, Hyoung Sul Yang, Eun Jin 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Advances volume 9, issue 27 ISSN 2375-2548 journal-article 2023 craaas https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 2024-09-12T04:01:39Z To better understand unexpectedly low plastic loads at the ocean’s surface compared with inputs, unidentified sinks must be located. Here, we present the microplastic (MP) budget for multi-compartments in the western Arctic Ocean (WAO) and demonstrate that Arctic sediments serve as important current and future sinks for MPs missing from the global budget. We identified an increase of 3% year −1 in MP deposition from sediment core observations. Relatively elevated MP abundances were found in seawater and surface sediments around the summer sea ice retreat region, implying enhanced MP accumulation and deposition facilitated by the ice barrier. We estimate 15.7 ± 2.30 × 10 16 N and 0.21 ± 0.14 MT as total MP loads in the WAO with 90% (by mass) buried in the post-1930 sediments, which exceeds the global average of the current marine MP load. The slower increase in plastic burial versus production implies a lag in plastic delivery to the Arctic, indicating more pollution in the future. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Arctic Arctic Ocean Science Advances 9 27 |
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Open Polar |
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AAAS Resource Center (American Association for the Advancement of Science) |
op_collection_id |
craaas |
language |
English |
description |
To better understand unexpectedly low plastic loads at the ocean’s surface compared with inputs, unidentified sinks must be located. Here, we present the microplastic (MP) budget for multi-compartments in the western Arctic Ocean (WAO) and demonstrate that Arctic sediments serve as important current and future sinks for MPs missing from the global budget. We identified an increase of 3% year −1 in MP deposition from sediment core observations. Relatively elevated MP abundances were found in seawater and surface sediments around the summer sea ice retreat region, implying enhanced MP accumulation and deposition facilitated by the ice barrier. We estimate 15.7 ± 2.30 × 10 16 N and 0.21 ± 0.14 MT as total MP loads in the WAO with 90% (by mass) buried in the post-1930 sediments, which exceeds the global average of the current marine MP load. The slower increase in plastic burial versus production implies a lag in plastic delivery to the Arctic, indicating more pollution in the future. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kim, Seung-Kyu Kim, Ji-Su Kim, So-Young Song, Nan-Seon La, Hyoung Sul Yang, Eun Jin |
spellingShingle |
Kim, Seung-Kyu Kim, Ji-Su Kim, So-Young Song, Nan-Seon La, Hyoung Sul Yang, Eun Jin Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
author_facet |
Kim, Seung-Kyu Kim, Ji-Su Kim, So-Young Song, Nan-Seon La, Hyoung Sul Yang, Eun Jin |
author_sort |
Kim, Seung-Kyu |
title |
Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
title_short |
Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
title_full |
Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
title_fullStr |
Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
title_sort |
arctic ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Sea ice |
op_source |
Science Advances volume 9, issue 27 ISSN 2375-2548 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.add2348 |
container_title |
Science Advances |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
27 |
_version_ |
1812174116751409152 |