Occurrence of microplastics including tire wear particles in northern Atlantic air measured by low-volume samplers in summer 2021

• 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: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2023
• Subjects: airborne concentration; B1; B2; B3; Car tire wear particles; Comment; Date/Time of event; Diphenylmethane diisocyanate-Polyurethane; cluster; Event label; FACTS; Fluxes and Fate of Microplastics in Northern European Waters; HE578; HE578_B1-LV; HE578_B2-LV; HE578_B3-LV; HE578_T1-LV; HE578_T2-LV; HE578_T3-LV; HE578_T4-LV; HE578_T5-LV; HE578_T6-LV; HE578_T7-LV; Heincke; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; Low volume aerosol sampler; Microplastics; Polycarbonate; Polyethylene terephthalate; Polymethylmethacrylate; Polypropylene; Polystyrene; Polyvinyl chloride; Py-GC/MS; Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; Pyrolysis-GC/MS; Sample volume; Size fraction; T1; T2; T3; T4; T5; Bear Island
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.964073; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.964073

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.