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Biogeochemical particulate and microplastics analysis in Antarctic penguin guano samples, collected 2021-2022
Summary
Scientists found tiny plastic particles—some as small as a grain of sand—in the poop of Antarctic penguins, showing that plastic pollution has reached even one of the most remote places on Earth. Nearly all the samples tested (91%) contained microplastics, mostly tiny fragments from common plastics like those used in packaging and bottles. This matters because it suggests plastic pollution is now widespread enough to infiltrate food chains in pristine environments, and it may even be disrupting how carbon naturally cycles through ecosystems—a process that helps regulate our planet's climate.
This dataset presents the results of the quantification of biogeochemical particulate components (carbon, nitrogen, and biogenic silica) and the identification of microplastics in penguin guano samples collected from Deception and Livingston Islands (South Shetland Islands) during the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 austral summers. Both species (Chinstrap and Gentoo) showed similar values for natural particulate fractions. Adapted and refined FTIR techniques enabled the detection of the smaller fraction of microplastics up to 25 micrometers in penguin guano for the first time. Microplastics were detected in 91 percent of samples, dominated by small particles (46 percent 25-50 micrometers). Chinstrap guano contained the highest amount of microplastics. Polypropylene was the predominant polymer (34 percent in Chinstrap, 75 percent in Gentoo) followed by Polyethylene (37 percent in Chinstrap, not found in Gentoo). This study provides the first survey of the smallest microplastic fraction (down to 25 micrometers) in penguin guano, offering new insight into how a shift in the partitioning from natural to microplastic particles, previously overlooked, may influence guano-mediated carbon pathways. This research falls under the framework of the Spanish Government project PIMETAN (RTI2018-098048-B-I00) and the UKRI-FLF project CUPIDO (MR/T020962/1). E. Sparaventi was supported by the Spanish predoctoral FPI grant (PRE2019-089679) and a bursary from Antarctic Science Ltd.