Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, NO-9296 Tromsø, Norway.
Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, NO-9296 Tromsø, Norway.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jun 10;772:145575. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145575. Epub 2021 Feb 4.
The research on plastic pollution is increasing worldwide but little is known about the contamination levels in the Arctic by microplastics and other anthropogenic particles (APs) such as dyed fibres. In this study, two different sampling designs were developed to collect 68 sediment subsamples in five locations in a remote Arctic fjord, Kongsfjorden, northwest of Svalbard. Those five stations composed a transect from a sewage outlet recently installed close to the northernmost settlement, Ny-Ålesund, to an offshore site. Plastics and other APs were extracted by density separation and analysed by both Raman and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Among the 37 APs found, 19 were microplastics. The others were classified as APs due to the presence of a dye or another additive. On average, 0.33 AP 100 g were found in the surface sediment and their sizes ranged between 0.10 and 6.31 mm. The site most polluted by APs was located at the mouth of the fjord while the less polluted ones were the offshore and the outlet sites. We believe that currents in the fjord have carried APs towards the mouth of the fjord where an eddy could retain APs which might sink the seafloor due to various reasons (ingestion & packaging, fouling-induced changes in buoyancy). In the cores, several different APs were found down to a depth of 12 cm. These APs may have been present in the sediments for decades or been transported deeper by biota. Here we provided data on plastic but also on other anthropogenic particles from a remote fjord in Svalbard.
全球范围内对塑料污染的研究正在增加，但对于北极地区微塑料和其他人为颗粒（APs）如染色纤维的污染水平知之甚少。在这项研究中，开发了两种不同的采样设计，以在斯瓦尔巴群岛西北部的一个偏远峡湾 Kongsfjorden 的五个地点采集 68 个沉积物样本。这五个站位构成了一个从最近在最北定居点 Ny-Ålesund 附近安装的污水出口到近海站点的横剖面。通过密度分离提取塑料和其他 APs，并通过拉曼和傅里叶变换红外光谱进行分析。在所发现的 37 个 APs 中，有 19 个是微塑料。其他的由于存在染料或其他添加剂而被归类为 APs。平均而言，在表层沉积物中发现了 0.33 AP 100 g，其尺寸范围在 0.10 至 6.31 mm 之间。受 APs 污染最严重的地点位于峡湾口，而污染较轻的地点是近海和出口处。我们认为，峡湾中的水流将 APs 带到峡湾口，在那里一个涡流可能会将 APs 保留下来，由于各种原因（摄入和包装、污垢引起的浮力变化），APs 可能会沉入海底。在岩芯中，在 12 厘米的深度发现了几种不同的 APs。这些 APs 可能已经存在于沉积物中数十年，或者被生物群更深地输送。在这里，我们提供了来自斯瓦尔巴群岛偏远峡湾的塑料以及其他人为颗粒的数据。
