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Dark microplastics trigger changes on snow metamorphism that depends on the snow initial density
Summary
Field experiments in the Spanish Pyrenees tested how dark microplastic particles affect snow, finding that effects depended heavily on the snow's age and density. On fresh, light snow, microplastics caused changes in snow crystal structure but minimal extra melting; on older, denser snow, heavy microplastic accumulation increased melt rates by 17% compared to uncontaminated snow. This is the first field evidence that microplastics can accelerate snowmelt, with implications for water supply timing and glacier loss in mountain regions.
Cryospheric regions are no exception to microplastic ubiquity. Still, microplastic's capacity to decrease snow albedo or advance snow melting, as light-absorbing impurities, remains unexplored. This study assesses the effect of dark microplastics on snow properties under realistic conditions. Six experiments were conducted at the Central Pyrenees (Spain), exposing surface snow to different concentrations of dark micropellets for 4 h. Results were variable and dependent on snow initial conditions. In the experiments performed on recent, light snow (<250 kg m), increasing concentrations of microplastics yielded moderate decreases in albedo and high changes in snow specific surface area, reducing it by 11.4 m kg as compared to blank samples, while snowmelt changes were <1%. On the contrary, in the experiments conducted on aged snow of high density (>450 kg m), high microplastic accumulation increased snowmelt 17% more than in the blanks. Further field studies are needed for a better understanding of the effect of microplastics on the global cryosphere.