Fibers spreading worldwide: Microplastics and other anthropogenic litter in an Arctic freshwater lake
Entity
UAM. Departamento de BiologíaPublisher
ElsevierDate
2020-03-12Citation
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137904
Science of the Total Environment 722 (2020): 137904
ISSN
0048-9697 (print); 1879-1026 (online)DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137904Project
Gobierno de España. RED2018-102345-T; Gobierno de España. CTM2016-74927-C2-1-R; Gobierno de España. CTM2016-74927-C2-2-R; Gobierno de España. CTM2016-79741R; Gobierno de España. AGL2014-53771-R; Gobierno de España. AGL2017-87591-REditor's Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137904Subjects
Additives; Microplastics; Polar; Anthropogenic Fibers; Arctic Lake; Biología y Biomedicina / BiologíaRights
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
We investigated the presence of microplastics and other anthropogenic litter in the sediments adhered to rocks of an Arctic freshwater lake at Ny-Ålesund (Svalbard Archipelago, 78°N; 11°E). Most of the sampled microparticles were fibers (>90%). The identification of polymer types and additives was performed by combining three spectroscopic techniques, namely Raman Microscopy, Fourier-Transform Infrared microspectroscopy (μFTIR) and Synchrotron Radiation μFTIR (SR-FTIR). SR-FTIR confirmed the presence of poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers, while RAMAN spectroscopy provided evidence of fibers containing industrial additives. Our results estimated an average concentration of 400 microparticles/m2 of rocks identified as anthropogenic litter, which included an estimation of 90 microplastics/m2 identified as polyester fibers; the rest are mostly natural fibers with evidence of anthropogenic origin. Taken together, the results proved the occurrence of anthropogenic pollutants in remote polar areas. Their probable origin is the long range atmospheric transport
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Google Scholar:González Pleiter, Miguel
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Velázquez, David
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Edo, Carlos
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Carretero, Olga
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Gago, Jesús
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Barón-Sola, Ángel
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Hernández, Luis Eduardo
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Yousef, Ibraheem
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Quesada del Corral, Antonio
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Leganés Nieto, Francisco
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Rosal, Roberto
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Fernández Piñas, Francisca
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