Microplastic concentration and composition in surface waters of the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

• Main Author: Leistenschneider, Clara
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2022
• Subjects: Acrylates; polyurethanes; varnish; Antarctica; ANT-XXXIII/2; Campaign of event; DATE/TIME; DEPTH; water; Event label; FTIR spectroscopy; LATITUDE; Lazarev Sea; LONGITUDE; Manta trawl; Microplastic abundance; Microplastic abundance per area; Microplastic particles; Microplastics; MTR; Polarstern; Polyamide; Polyester; Polyethylene; Polypropylene; Polystyrene; PS111; PS111_10-1; PS111_12-1; PS111_13-1; PS111_19-1; PS111_20-1; PS111_28-4; PS111_64-1; PS111_74-5; PS111_85-2; PS111_9-1; PS117; PS117_100-2; PS117_14-3; PS117_15-7; PS117_17-2; PS117_22-3; PS117_26-3; PS117_32-2; PS117_3-4; PS117_34-6; PS117_35-1; PS117_36-2; PS117_38-2; Antarctic; Austral; Lazarev; The Antarctic; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung; Reports on Polar and Marine Research
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.941076

The dataset provides information about the microplastic contamination in surface waters of the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Samples (n = 34) were collected during two expeditions on RV Polarstern, PS111 (2018) and PS117 (2018/2019), to the Antarctic Weddell Sea, taking place during austral summer. Samples were collected with a surface trawl (manta trawl; 5gyres Institute, Los Angeles, California; 60 x18 cm² rectangular aperture) equipped with a 300 µm mesh and a mechanical flowmeter. On average 234.6 (±83.7 SD) m³ of seawater were filtered per sample (total filtered volume: 7974 m³). Putative microplastic particles were sorted visually under a dissecting microscope (magnification 6.7-45x) and analyzed by means of by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy.