| Summary: | Other date: 2021. Abstract: Microplastic pollution is ubiquitous to water sources around the world, including freshwater, drinking water, salt water, and sea ice. Microplastics have also been documented in all parts of the water column from the sea floor and sediments to surface water. It was believed that microplastic pollution was concentrated in coastal areas with large human populations around the world. While remaining either entirely absent or minimal from remote areas where human influence is minimal such as in Antarctica, specifically the Antarctic Peninsula. This project determined microplastic concentration of three fjord habitats on the Western Antarctic Peninsula where glaciers are rapidly retreating within the fjords. Over a three-year period from 2017 to 2020 water samples were collected from the surface and benthos from 16 stations in Marian Cove, King George Island, Börgen Bay, Anvers Island, and Sheldon Glacier, Adelaide Island. For each station, three liters from the surface and three liters from the benthic were collected using a CTD rosette with Niskin Bottles, vacuum-filtered with a Buchner-Filter hand pump then, quantified under a compound microscope to determine the classification of microplastic, (fragment, fiber, or bead) color, and size. Comparisons over time and location were made in average microplastic per liter. It was determined that all the fjord habitats had microplastic present every year sampled, but the microplastic concentration was also increasing over time in the three fjords. This demonstrates that even with barriers such as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, plastics are present and increasing in the Western Antarctic Peninsula during this time. by Tristyn Nicole Garza. Department of Biology, Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering Thesis (M.S.) University of West Florida 2021 Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.
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