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Microplastics in the southern ocean and antarctic snow
Summary
Researchers sampled sub-surface seawater (4-5 m depth) aboard a research vessel and snow collected near five Russian Antarctic stations during the 2022 Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), filtering at least 2 m3 of seawater per sample and 5 litres of snow per sample for microplastic analysis. The study characterised microplastic occurrence and composition in both the Southern Ocean water column and Antarctic snow, contributing baseline data on plastic contamination in one of the most remote regions on Earth.
Snow near Russian Antarctic stations and sub-surface waters of adjacent Southern Ocean were studied in 2022 in frames of Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE). Sub-surface seawater (4-5 m) was sampled onboard RV "Akademik Treshnikov" by the built-in vessel flow-through filtering system with mesh-size 100 microns making at least 2 m3 of filtered seawater for each sample. Snow of various age during seasonal works (from Dec to May) was sampled near 5 stations: 5 L of snow for each sample. All samples were treated in the clean lab conditions in St.Petersburg in PlasticLab, including the field and procedural blanks, and contamination control at each stage of work. Laboratory treatment included Fenton reagent protocol for snow and KOH protocol for seawater samples, with 100 Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/551278/document