ALBERT

Description: In order to assess pollution with small microplastics (S-MP, 11-500 µm) in the Lower Weser and transition to the German North Sea, surface water samples were collected with the RV Otzum (ICBM, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment), as well as with the RV Uthörn (AWI, Alfred-Wegener-Institute) in April 2018. Sampling was performed using a pumping system containing of a floating suction basket (mesh size: 500 µm) for pre-filtration, followed by the concentration onto a 15 µm stainless steel screen. Samples were isolated from the filter screens in the laboratory, thoroughly processed and measured via µFTIR imaging. Dominant polymer type in the S-MP sample fraction was acrylates/polyurethanes/varnish, and concentrations ranged between 2.3 × 10¹ and 9.7 × 10³ m⁻³, with maximum values in the area of the turbidity Maximum Zone of the River Weser.

Description: Raw data acquired by an SBE21 thermosalinograph and an auxiliary SBE38 temperature sensor (Sea-Bird Scientific, USA) installed in an underway seawater flow-through system on board RV Heincke were processed to yield a calibrated and validated data set of seawater temperature and salinity along the cruise track. The seawater inlet is located at a depth of 2 m. The raw hexadecimal data were downloaded from the DAVIS SHIP data base (https://dship.awi.de) at a resolution of 1 s, and converted to temperature and conductivity using the pre-deployment factory calibration coefficients. The converted data were averaged to 1 min values, outliers were removed, and sensor drift was corrected using coefficients obtained from a post-season calibration performed at Sea-Bird at the end of the measurement season. Salinity was calculated from internal temperature, conductivity and pressure according to the PSS-78 Practical Salinity Scale. Processed data are provided as 1 min means of seawater temperature, conductivity and salinity, aligned with position data taken from the master track. Quality flags are appended according to the SeaDataNet Data Quality Control Procedures (version from May 2010). More details are described in the attached processing report.

Description: 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.

Description: 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.

Description: The dataset below provides information about the microplastic contamination in the Kuril Kamchatka Trench in the NW Pacific Ocean. The samples were collected in summer 2016 during the Kurambio II expedition with RV Sonne. Each sample represents the first 5 cm of the sediment and the above sediment-water interface. The data table depicts the results of the analysis carried out on 8 Sediment samples, collected with a Multicorer (OKTOPUS GmbH, Kiel, Germany). The samples represent the first five cm of the deep seafloor at four sampling stations of the Kuril Kamchatka trench.

Description: This data table provided information about the microplastic identification analysis carried out on the samples listed in the data set doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.928575. To guarantee a precise quantification of particles, the sample were analysed entirely by µFT-IR. This procedure requires an aliquoting of the samples in subsamples. The number and the volume of subsamples, in the table depict as % aliquot, were established after calculating the number of particles present in each sample, to avoid an overload of the filter necessary to carry out the spectroscopic measurement. By summing the outcomes of the aliquots of a sample, the total number of MP and polymer type per sample was established.

Description: 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.

Description: This data collection contains bacteria counts and water temperature measurements at Long-term Ecological Research at AWI (LTER) station Helgoland Roads, North Sea from 1962 until 2002.

Description: Rivers are important transport systems for nutrients and organic material and thus influence biogeochemical cycles and food web structures. Microorganismal biodiversity is an important parameter for the ecological balance of river ecosystems. Despite the knowledge that freshwater fungi perform important ecological functions, there is scarcely any fungal data available for river systems. In this study, we address the fundamental question of how mycoplankton communities are structured and assembled over a longer river section with strong environmental gradients and anthropogenic pressure and what variables control on it. The mycoplankton communities from the shallow freshwater to the coastal-oceanic transition zone were analyzed based on 18S rRNA gene tag-sequencing and the observed patterns were related to environmental and spatial factors by multivariate statistics. Finally, the underlying assembly processes were revealed by Quantitative Process Estimates (QPE) method. The partitioning of mycoplankton communities deviated from the previously described patterns of fluvial microbial communities, triggered by a strong influence of local environmental conditions, which were partly under spatial control. The deepening of the Elbe River for improved navigation purpose seemed to have a strong secondary effect. The salinity gradient was the most explaining variable and zoosporic fungi showed higher sensitivity to high salinity levels. Consequently, none of the zoosporic taxon groups occurred solely in the marine environment. Significant differences were found in the assemblage processes with a dominance of environmental selection in the upstream region compared to undominated processes in downstream and coastal transition regions. The results suggest that fungi play various ecological roles along the diverse river sections and that their biotic interactions become more complex in the estuary. These results provide an important framework to help predict the functional consequences of changes in mycoplankton community structure and to help conserve microbial biodiversity in river ecosystems.

Description: In order to assess pollution with large microplastics (L-MP, 500-5000 µm) in the Lower Weser and transition to the German North Sea, surface water samples were collected with the RV Otzum (ICBM, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment), as well as with the RV Uthörn (AWI, Alfred-Wegener-Institute) in April 2018. Sampling was performed using a microplastic net (mesh size: 300 µm), followed by filtration in the laboratory over a 500 µm stainless steel sieve. Putative MP items in the size range 500-5000 µm were analysed by means of Attenuated Total Reflection - FTIR in order to determine the underlying synthetic polymer. Dominant polymer type in the L-MP sample fraction was polyethylene. Concentrations ranged between 1 × 10⁻² m⁻³ and 9.8 × 10⁻¹ m⁻³. The highest MP concentration was measured upstream the Weser Weir.