Occurrence of microplastics including tire wear particles in northern Atlantic air in 2021 - a first mass-quantitative data set

• Main Authors: Goßmann, Isabel, Herzke, Dorte, Held, Andreas, Schulz, Janina, Nikiforov, Vladimir, Georgi, Christoph, Evangeliou, Nikolaos, Eckhardt, Sabine, Gerdts, Gunnar, Wurl, Oliver, Scholz-Böttcher, Barbara
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2023
• Subjects: airborne concentration; FACTS; Fluxes and Fate of Microplastics in Northern European Waters; Microplastics; Pyrolysis-GC/MS; tire wear particles; Bear Island
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.963769; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.963769

This data set provides mass quantitative data of microplastics (MP) including tire wear particles (TWP) in northern Atlantic air. Air samples were taken with two different active air sampling devices (low- and high-volume samplers) during seven transects on a research cruise along the Norwegian coast up to Bear Island. Identification and quantification of MP was performed with pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). More information about the measurement technique is found in the related paper (Goßmann et al., 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39340-5). MP was detected in all transects (max. 37.5 ng m-3). Particularly interesting was the ubiquity of the polyethylene terephthalate cluster (C-PET, max. 1.5 ng m-3). TWP was detected only twice, but in comparably high concentrations (max. 35 ng m-3). A close relationship of C-PET occurrence and possible re-emission processes from the ocean were suspected. The results for some polymer clusters had to be excluded due to sampling related interferences. The respective background is discussed in the related publication. The indicator used for identification and quantification of the polyvinyl chloride cluster (C-PVC) is rather unspecific. Therefore, C-PVC might be interfered by additional anthropogenic sources and the given C-PVC concentration only represents an order of magnitude.