We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Microplastics in Museums: Pollution and Paleoecology
Summary
This study investigated microplastic contamination in museum natural history collections, assessing both the pollution risk to preserved specimens and the potential for using archived samples to study historical microplastic accumulation in ecosystems.
Background: With the advent of the creation, production, and continuous use of plastic in both industrial and domestic spaces, plastic materials have become an integral part of human daily life, resulting in a range of impacts, both positive and negative. More recently, their resistance and refractoriness, once considered significant advantages, are now understood as a threat to the balance of ecosystems and, ultimately, to human health. The particular composition of plastic grants it great malleability and durability. On the other hand, it includes a series of potentially toxic compounds that, over time and through environmental action, can become bioavailable at various levels of the trophic chain through tiny particles known as microplastics. Research has increasingly revealed various types of damage across multiple sectors of the environment and society. Objectives: This article attempts to find out the impact of microplastics on the atmospheric layer and the consequences for historical heritage as a result of interactions in the indoor environment. Methods: The sources, types, migration mechanisms, and impacts of environmental MPs and heritage items are analysed and summarized, and it is also considered how the presence of these small particles in preserved organisms and tissues in museums and other collections can serve as indicators of the mechanisms and environmental dynamics of the Anthropocene. Results: Microplastics have been detected in the atmosphere and artefacts in natural history and other collections, as well as sediment cores, leading to the conclusion that the plasticene era began in the 1950s. Such research studies, and potential similar investigations on historical stored tissue samples, require optimization before the information stored in these sources can be fully mined. Conclusion: Microplastics are present at high levels in both outdoor and indoor air. Together with their adsorbed pollutants they can cause deterioration of the artefacts and health problems for conservators in museums. In museum specimens like preserved animals and in stored tissue collections they can act as historical proof of the distribution of microplastics in living things throughout time and this has confirmed the beginning of the Plasticene as the early 1950s.
Sign in to start a discussion.
More Papers Like This
Can natural history collection specimens be used as aquatic microplastic pollution bioindicators?
Researchers explored whether preserved animal specimens from natural history museum collections could serve as historical records of microplastic pollution over time. By reviewing how such collections have been used to track other pollutants, they identified key challenges — including inconsistent sampling and specimen degradation — and proposed guidelines for using museum archives to reconstruct how microplastic contamination has changed over decades.
Review of microplastics in museum specimens: An under-utilized tool to better understand the Plasticene
A review of microplastic studies using museum collection specimens spanning 1900-2019 found that archived marine and freshwater organisms can fill knowledge gaps on historical microplastic pollution trends, with microfibers as the most common type found across all specimen types reviewed.
The role of museum of biological collections in environmental research: a short note
Museum biological collections — preserved specimens gathered over decades — provide a unique way to track how chemical contaminants like microplastics and heavy metals have changed in ecosystems over time. Comparing historical and modern specimens allows researchers to identify long-term pollution trends that would be impossible to detect through contemporary sampling alone.
Measuring historical pollution: natural history collections as tools for public health and environmental justice research
This review argues that biological specimens held in natural history museum collections — such as preserved birds, fish, and insects — represent an underutilized archive of quantitative pollution data spanning nearly two centuries. By linking historical specimen data to health outcomes in affected communities, researchers could better understand the long-term consequences of emerging contaminants like microplastics and support environmental justice policy.
The Paleoecology of Microplastic Contamination
This paper reviews how paleoecological methods — using naturally accumulating environmental archives like sediment cores — can be applied to reconstruct the historical timeline of microplastic contamination. Long-term records are needed to establish baselines and understand how rapidly microplastic pollution has escalated over the past century.