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Arctic Ocean sediments as important current and future sinks for marine microplastics missing in the global microplastic budget
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Researchers mapped microplastic distribution across multiple environments in the western Arctic Ocean and found that Arctic sediments serve as a major, previously unrecognized sink for the world's missing microplastics. Sediment core analysis revealed that microplastic deposition has been increasing by about 3 percent per year, with sea ice acting as a temporary reservoir that releases trapped particles as it melts. The study helps explain why surface ocean plastic loads are lower than expected and warns that Arctic microplastic accumulation will likely accelerate as climate change reduces ice cover.
To better understand unexpectedly low plastic loads at the ocean's surface compared with inputs, unidentified sinks must be located. Here, we present the microplastic (MP) budget for multi-compartments in the western Arctic Ocean (WAO) and demonstrate that Arctic sediments serve as important current and future sinks for MPs missing from the global budget. We identified an increase of 3% year-1 in MP deposition from sediment core observations. Relatively elevated MP abundances were found in seawater and surface sediments around the summer sea ice retreat region, implying enhanced MP accumulation and deposition facilitated by the ice barrier. We estimate 15.7 ± 2.30 × 1016 N and 0.21 ± 0.14 MT as total MP loads in the WAO with 90% (by mass) buried in the post-1930 sediments, which exceeds the global average of the current marine MP load. The slower increase in plastic burial versus production implies a lag in plastic delivery to the Arctic, indicating more pollution in the future.
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