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MP-GeoProxy Database: Biogeochemical Proxies for Atmospheric Microplastics
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The MP-GeoProxy database provides a multi-proxy collection of atmospheric microplastic data paired with biogeochemical tracers including rare-earth elements, mineral assemblages, and isotopes to support research on microplastic provenance and transport pathways. This resource enables more accurate source attribution and modeling of how airborne microplastics travel and deposit globally.
The MP-GeoProxy database provides a multi-proxy collection of atmospheric (suspended and deposited) microplastic (MP) data, coupled with biogeochemical tracers, to support studies on MP provenance, transport, and behavior. The database includes co-located active and passive, size-resolved air and source material samples, with parallel characterization of MPs (counts, mass, size distribution, volume, polymer type, etc.), elemental and mineral analyses, other organic and inorganic atmospheric contaminants, and strict QA/QC measures. Biogeochemical tracers include rare-earth element patterns, crustal and anthropogenic metal ratios, mineral assemblages, multi-ion sea-salt signatures, high-resolution isotopes, additional organic or inorganic contaminants, meteorological parameters, and potential new methodological approaches in future versions. The database is designed for use with transport and receptor modeling, as well as uncertainty quantification, enabling multi-proxy assessment of atmospheric MP dynamics. The MP-GeoProxy database is versioned and must be cited using the Concept DOI and the DOI of the specific version used.
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MP-GeoProxy Database: Biogeochemical Proxies for Atmospheric Microplastics
AI summary Read the abstract
The MP-GeoProxy database compiles atmospheric microplastic measurements paired with biogeochemical tracers such as rare-earth elements, metal ratios, and isotopes to help researchers trace where airborne microplastics come from and how they travel. This multi-proxy resource enables more rigorous source attribution and transport modeling of microplastics circulating through the atmosphere.
Biogeochemical Proxy Approaches to Understanding the Atmospheric Dynamics of Microplastics: Perspective and MP-GeoProxy Database
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This study presented a decision-gated, multiproxy framework for constraining the source identification and atmospheric processing of microplastics using co-occurring biogeochemical particulate signals including geochemical tracers, sea-spray markers, and carbonaceous combustion signals. The authors also introduced the open MP-GeoProxy database linking MP observations with proxy data and standardized metadata to enable cross-study synthesis and community-driven advances in understanding airborne microplastic dynamics.
Atmospheric microplastic emissions from land and ocean
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Researchers compiled a comprehensive atmospheric microplastic dataset and derived top-down and bottom-up emission estimates for particles in the 5-100 micrometer size range from both land and ocean sources, providing gridded emissions data in multiple formats for use in atmospheric transport modelling.
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Researchers compared microplastic pollution in dust from a sparsely populated area on the Mongolian Plateau and a densely populated city, using polymer composition and aging characteristics to distinguish locally generated microplastics from those transported externally via long-distance atmospheric transport.
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Researchers quantified airborne microplastic concentrations at a remote coastal site in southern New Zealand using both active and passive sampling methods. They found plastics comprised at least 0.14% of total suspended particulate mass, with air trajectory analysis suggesting the Southern Ocean as a source. The study indicates that counting microplastics by number alone may significantly underestimate true atmospheric plastic pollution, since the smallest and most abundant particles escape microscopic detection.
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