ALBERT

Description: A new report commissioned by WWF provides the most comprehensive account to date of the extent to which plastic pollution is affecting the global ocean, the impacts it’s having on marine species and ecosystems, and how these trends are likely to develop in future. The report by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) reveals a serious and rapidly worsening situation that demands immediate and concerted international action: ● Today almost every species group in the ocean has encountered plastic pollution, with scientists observing negative effects in almost 90% of assessed species. ● Not only has plastic pollution entered the marine food web, it is significantly affecting the productivity of some of the world’s most important marine ecosystems like coral reefs and mangroves. ● Several key global regions – including areas in the Mediterranean, the East China and Yellow Seas and Arctic sea ice – have already exceeded plastic pollution thresholds beyond which significant ecological risks can occur, and several more regions are expected to follow suit in the coming years. ● If all plastic pollution inputs stopped today, marine microplastic levels would still more than double by 2050 – and some scenarios project a 50-fold increase by 2100.

Description: The discovery of atmospheric micro(nano)plastic transport and ocean–atmosphere exchange points to a highly complex marine plastic cycle, with negative implications for human and ecosystem health. Yet, observations are currently limited. In this Perspective, we quantify the processes and fluxes of the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle, with the aim of highlighting the remaining unknowns in atmospheric micro(nano)plastic transport. Between 0.013 and 25 million metric tons per year of micro(nano)plastics are potentially being transported within the marine atmosphere and deposited in the oceans. However, the high uncertainty in these marine-atmospheric fluxes is related to data limitations and a lack of study intercomparability. To address the uncertainties and remaining knowledge gaps in the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle, we propose a future global marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic observation strategy, incorporating novel sampling methods and the creation of a comparable, harmonized and global data set. Together with long-term observations and intensive investigations, this strategy will help to define the trends in marine-atmospheric pollution and any responses to future policy and management actions.

Description: These data represent the results of a long-term colonization experiment at the Long-Term Ecological Research observatory HAUSGARTEN. Recruitment panels were constructed from plastic and brick and deployed attached to a metal frame in 1999 at the station HG-IV (Arctic Ocean, 79 N, 04 E, 2500 m depth). The experiment was recovered in 2017. Following recovery, all invertebrates and foraminiferans on the panels were counted using a dissecting microscope on board R/V Polarstern and then saved in 95% ethanol. Species were identified by reference to published literature and taxonomic experts. Species richness was low compared to surrounding hard-bottom communities, indicating that Arctic benthic communities may take decades to develop.

Description: To investigate scavenging communities associated with carcasses of animals from the water column, we performed experimental food fall studies. We deployed baited camera landers with squid (Loligo vulgaris) and jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) for 13-35 hours at ~2500 m depth in the Fram Strait at the deep sea Long Term Observatory HAUSGARTEN. The dataset includes all raw count data of scavengers on the food falls sorted by taxon based on image analysis annotation in BIIGLE. Scavengers included Eurythenes gryllus , Scopelocheirus and stegocephalid amphipods, various crustaceans and the gastropod Mohnia.

Description: Zooplankton (amphipod and copepod) were collected using nets in the Fram Strait and the Arctic, in July 2018 and August 2019 for microplastic analysis. Water samples were also collected from the underway system and CTD alongside the August 2019 zooplankton samples (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.950239). All samples were initially digested using a homogenising solution and then filtered in preparation for Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis in combination with an automated polymer identification approach (SIMPLE software) to identify polymer types, shape and size. Microplastics were also visualised using a microscope to further determine shape and size, particularly of fibres. Data collected on the microplastics found includes polymer type, shape, size, species ingestion and location.

Description: This dataset presents microplastics in water samples collected from the underway system and CTD alongside the August 2019 zooplankton samples presented in https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.950296. These samples were initially digested using a homogenising solution and then filtered in preparation for Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis in combination with an automated polymer identification approach (SIMPLE software) to identify polymer types, shape and size. Microplastics were also visualised using a microscope to further determine shape and size, particularly of fibres. Data collected on the microplastics found includes; polymer type, shape, size, species ingestion and location.

Description: The deep sea is considered a major sink for debris even in regions as secluded as the Arctic Ocean. Here, we assess the variability of litter over a latitudinal gradient at the HAUSGARTEN observatory by adding imagery from the southernmost station S3 to previously published data from the northernmost station N3 and the central station HG-IV. The analysis includes footage of the seafloor from 2002 to 2017. Photographic surveys were analyzed to determine litter density, material composition, size and interactions with epibenthic fauna. Litter density clearly increased over time ranging between 813 ± 525 (SEM) and 6,717 ± 2,044 (SEM) items km-². The dominant material was plastic and small-sized items accounted for 63% of the litter in the observatory. N3 experienced the strongest increase in litter dominated by dark pieces of glass (41%). Interactions between litter and epibenthic megafauna were frequently observed (45% of items) in the form of entanglement with sponges or colonization by sea anemones.

Description: 〈jats:p〉Plastic debris is ubiquitous in all ecosystems and has even reached locations that humans will hardly reach such as the deep ocean floor and the atmosphere. Research has highlighted that plastic debris is now pervasive even in remote Arctic regions. While modeling projections indicated local sources and long-distance transport as causes, empirical data about its origin and sources are scarce. Data collected by citizen scientists can increase the scale of observations, especially in such remote regions. Here, we report abundance and composition data of marine debris collected by citizen scientists on 14 remote Arctic beaches on the Spitsbergen archipelago. In addition, citizen scientists collected three large, industrial sized canvas bags (hereafter: big packs), filled with beached debris, of which composition, sources and origin were determined. A total debris mass of 1,620 kg was collected on about 38,000 m〈jats:sup〉2〈/jats:sup〉 (total mean = 41.83 g m〈jats:sup〉-2〈/jats:sup〉, SEM = ± 31.62). In terms of abundance, 23,000 pieces of debris were collected on 25,500 m〈jats:sup〉2〈/jats:sup〉 (total mean = 0.37 items of debris m〈jats:sup〉-2〈/jats:sup〉, SEM = ± 0.17). Although most items were plastic in both abundance and mass, fisheries waste, such as nets, rope, and large containers, dominated in mass (87%), and general plastics, such as packaging and plastic articles, dominated in abundance (80%). Fisheries-related debris points to local sea-based sources from vessels operating in the Arctic and nearby. General plastics could point to both land- and ship based sources, as household items are also used on ships and debris can be transported to the north 〈jats:italic〉via〈/jats:italic〉 the oceans current. Overall, 1% of the items (206 out of 14,707 pieces) collected in two big packs (2017 and 2021), bore imprints or labels allowing an analysis of their origin. If the categories ‘global’ and ‘English language’ were excluded, most of identifiable items originated from Arctic states (65%), especially from Russia (32%) and Norway (16%). But almost a third of the items (30%) was of European provenance, especially from Germany (8%). Five percent originated from more distant sources (e.g. USA, China, Korea, Brazil). Global measures such as an efficient and legally binding plastic treaty with improved upstream measures and waste management are urgently needed, to lower the amount of plastic entering our environments and in turn lifting the pressure on the Arctic region and its sensitive biota.〈/jats:p〉

Description: Cigarette filters offer no public health benefits, are single-use plastics (cellulose acetate) and are routinely littered. Filters account for a significant proportion of plastic litter worldwide, requiring considerable public funds to remove, and are a source of microplastics. Used cigarette filters can leech toxic chemicals and pose an ecological risk to both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Bottom-up measures, such as focusing on consumer behaviour, are ineffective and we need to impose top-down solutions (i.e., bans) if we are to reduce the prevalence of this number one litter item. Banning filters offers numerous ecological, socioeconomic, and public health benefits.

Description: In 1999 the AWI established the HAUSGARTEN observatory, to assess the impact of climate change on Arctic ecosystems in Fram Strait (Arctic), which included repeated camera transects to assess changes on the deep Arctic seafloor. A first analysis of the footage highlighted that marine debris increased over time. Plastic debris was also sighted during sea surface observations for seabird surveys. This prompted us to add a pollution observatory to the ongoing research programme FRAM, aiming to quantify plastic pollution in different ecosystem compartments to identify hidden sinks. Here, we summarise the results of this work encompassing matrices such as snow, sea ice, surface waters, water column, deep seafloor, biota and Arctic beaches. Images from the deep seafloor taken since 2002 showed a marine debris concentration of 4,571 ± 1,628 items km-2, which is in range with polluted oceanic regions. Visual surveys of floating debris from the same region revealed 500 times lower concentrations (9 items km-2), showing that the deep Arctic seafloor constitutes a sink for marine debris. Quantities of 9–483 g m-2 were reported from 15 beach surveys on Svalbard by citizen scientists. Plastics accounted for 〉80% of the mass, primarily from fisheries. Microplastics in samples from the sea surface, water column, sediment, sea ice and snow were analysed by combining state-of–the-art sampling technology with µFT-IR analyses. Using the same analysis for samples from different ecosystem compartments enabled us to determine the vertical distribution of microplastics, as sea ice entrains extremely high microplastic concentrations, which are released to the underlying waters during ice melts. In-situ pump-filtrations throughout the water column revealed that microplastics prevail at all depths in Fram Strait (0–1,287 items m–3). Microplastic concentrations in sediments ranged from 239–13,331 N kg–1. Highest microplastics concentrations in sediments and the water column were measured close to the marginal ice zone and polymer compositions indicated a sea ice origin for most particles found in the deep waters of East Greenland, indicating sea ice as a temporal sink. Indeed, the highest concentration (1.2 ± 1.4) ×107 items m-3) was recorded in an ice core from pack ice of Fram Strait. The presence of microplastic in snow samples from ice floes indicates atmospheric deposition of microplastics. Recent research shows that resident zooplankton ingests microplastics, which were also found in the ice algae Melosira arctica. The data indicate that the seafloor and sea ice constitute (temporal) sinks of plastic pollution and that pollution levels are high, despite of the distance to sources. The receding sea ice has already led to increased anthropogenic pressure in the Fram Strait, which is likely to become a major shipping lane during summer. The number of fishers operating around Svalbard and of ship calls to Longyearbyen has already increased significantly. In addition, the prevailing hydrography promotes the transport of plastic pollutants from distant sources, mostly from the Atlantic Ocean, but also from the Central Arctic via the Transpolar Drift. Long-range atmospheric transport and deposition likely adds to this.