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Microplastic abundance in surface water samples during the cruise SO296-1 over the shelf of eastern Pacific

Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data (PANGAEA) (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research) 2026
Janika Reineccius, Kendra Witt, Jenny Jeschek, Ines Hand, Detlef E Schulz-Bull, Helena Frazao, Madleen Dierken, Juliana Ivar do Sul, Joanna J Waniek

Summary

This dataset records microplastic concentrations collected from surface waters along the eastern Pacific shelf between the US and Chile during a research cruise. Providing baseline data from this under-sampled ocean region helps researchers understand how microplastics are distributed in the Pacific and supports modelling of their long-range transport.

During the cruise SO296-1 on board of the German RV SONNE, we collected samples from the ship pumping system, connected to a filtration unit for microplastic analyses along the shelf of the eastern Pacific between Port Hueneme (USA) and Talcahuano (Chile). On the 0.7 µm GF filters between 300 and 560 L of surface water was filtered. The microplastic detection was carried out in the IOW laboratory using binocular microscope and the FTIR (LUMOS II, Bruker Optik GmbH, Germany). This data is reported together with surface temperature and salinity based on the continuous registration by thermosalinograph (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.968975). Additional details about the cruise can be found in the cruise report (https://doi.org/10.48433/cr_so296_1), additional surface environmental data can be found at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.988025.

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