Brief communication: Atmospheric dry deposition of microplastics and mesoplastics in an Antarctic glacier: The case of the expanded polystyrene

• Main Authors: González-Pleiter, Miguel, Lacerot, Gissell, Edo, Carlos, Pablo-Lozoya, Juan, Leganés, Francisco, Fernández-Piñas, Francisca, Rosal, Roberto, Teixeira-de-Mello, Franco
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Antarctic; Collins Glacier; King George Island; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2020-261; https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2020-261/

Plastics have been found in marine water and sediments, sea ice, marine invertebrates, and penguins in Antarctica; however, there is no evidence of their presence in Antarctic glaciers. Our pilot study investigated plastic occurrence on two ice surfaces that constitute part of the ablation zone of Collins Glacier (King George Island, Antarctica). Our results showed concentrations of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in the 0.17–0.33 items m −2 range. We registered an atmospheric dry deposition between 0.08 and 0.17 items m −2 day −1 (February 2019). This is the first report of plastic presence in an Antarctic glacier, which was probably transported by wind.