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Review report on ”Atmospheric dry deposition of microplastics and mesoplastics in an Antarctic glacier: The case of the expanded polystyrene” (tc-2020-261)
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This peer review report evaluates a study on microplastic and mesoplastic deposition in Antarctic glaciers from atmospheric dry fall. The reviewer recommends publication while requesting clearer research goals, noting that atmospheric plastic pollution in remote polar regions is an understudied emerging issue.
1. General points: I recommend publication of this interesting MS in the journal Cryosphere since it is based on rare data from a remote area (Antarctica).In addition, it covers atmospheric microplastic pollution, an emerging issue that we do not know so much about until now.I also like the fact that larger plastic, mesoplastic, is addressed , for which we don't have so much data, especially in terms of atmospheric MP pollution.However, there are a few concerns that have to be tackled before this can be published in my opinion.Since you deal with microplastic, please provide a few lines C1 Please, make goals of this research clearer by formulating hypotheses or research questions: why you studied the two lake glaciers (e.g.test effect of distance to human plastic source).In addition, I strongly recommend that you then test your hypothesis on the data that you collected in both the sampling and experiment via statistical testing of abundance and polymer composition.Please add another graph, which shows the temporal trend over the 48-h experiment.Now this is hardly mentioned at all in the MS, which is a shame given all the work done.Please, also describe the trend in a separate section in results and consider statistical testing.Please, present all data as per m2, refrain from using numbers without a unit, which are meaningless. Specific points
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