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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Anthropocene Antarctica: Approaches, issues and debates
ClearAnthropocene Antarctica
This chapter outlines how Antarctica is both essential to understanding Earth's past climate and deeply threatened by human-caused changes, including microplastic pollution and ocean acidification. It situates Antarctica within broader Anthropocene debates about the planet's future.
Environmental contamination and climate change in Antarctic ecosystems: an updated overview
This review provides an updated overview of environmental contamination and climate change impacts on Antarctic ecosystems. While brief, the topic is relevant to microplastic research because Antarctica, once considered pristine, has been found to contain microplastics, highlighting just how far-reaching global plastic pollution has become.
Microplastic Pollution in Antarctic Environments
This review examines microplastic pollution in Antarctic environments, summarizing evidence that even this remote continent has been contaminated by plastic particles, with implications for its unique fauna, influence on global climate systems, and value as a pristine scientific reference site.
Pollution in Antarctica
This overview documents microplastic pollution in Antarctica, summarizing evidence of contamination in seawater, sea ice, sediment, snow, and wildlife despite Antarctica's remoteness, highlighting that long-range atmospheric and oceanic transport delivers plastics to even the most pristine environments.
Plastic occurrence, sources, and impacts in Antarctic environment and biota
Researchers reviewed evidence of plastic pollution in Antarctica, finding microplastics — mostly fibers — in sea ice, ocean water, sediments, and both marine and land animals, raising concern that even the most remote ecosystems on Earth are contaminated and that biodiversity and ecosystem functions may be at risk.
Advocating microbial diversity conservation in Antarctica
This review highlights how human activities, tourism, and climate change are threatening Antarctica's unique microbial ecosystems, with microplastics now reaching even this remote continent. While focused on conservation, the study underscores that microplastic pollution is truly global in scale, contaminating environments far from any source of plastic production.
Polar pollution: protecting Antarctic marine ecosystems from microplastics
This review investigated microplastic contamination in Antarctic marine ecosystems, finding that ocean currents carry plastics to even the most remote polar regions, and discussing the policy landscape and strategies needed to protect this ecologically critical environment.
Occurrence of Microplastics (MPs) in Antarctica and Its Impact on the Health of Organisms
This review compiled recent findings on microplastic occurrence in Antarctica in both water and sediment, finding that tourism, fishing, and research activities have introduced MPs to this previously considered pristine environment with documented impacts on Antarctic organisms.
Occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in Antarctica and its impact on the health of organisms
This review summarizes existing research on microplastic pollution in Antarctica, covering how these tiny plastic particles reach even the most remote environments through fishing, tourism, and ocean currents. Despite Antarctica being considered pristine, microplastics have been found in both water and sediment across the region. The findings highlight that no place on Earth is free from microplastic contamination, raising concerns about effects on wildlife and ecosystems that are connected to global food chains.
Microplastics in the Antarctic marine system: An emerging area of research
This paper reviewed microplastics research in the Antarctic marine system, identifying it as an emerging research area and documenting the first evidence of microplastic contamination in this remote polar environment.
Pollution Has No Borders: Microplastics in Antarctica
This review documents the spread of microplastics throughout Antarctica -- in seawater, sediments, freshwater lakes, snow, glaciers, and marine organisms -- despite the continent having minimal local pollution sources. The findings demonstrate that microplastic contamination is truly global, reaching even the most isolated ecosystems on Earth through atmospheric and ocean currents.
Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Antarctica. Considerations on Their Impact on Ecosystems and Human and Fauna Health
This review examines the current state of knowledge about microplastic and nanoplastic contamination in Antarctica, assessing concentrations detected in air, water, sediment, and biota across the continent. The authors discuss the vulnerability of polar ecosystems to plastic pollution and the challenges of attribution given long-range atmospheric and oceanic transport pathways.
Terrestrial ecosystems of the Antarctic Peninsula and their responses to climate change and anthropogenic impacts
This review examines how climate change and human activity are altering terrestrial ecosystems in the Antarctic Peninsula, where warming rates have been among the highest on Earth. While focused on climate biology, plastic contamination — including microplastics transported to Antarctica via ocean currents and air — is increasingly documented as an additional stressor in these fragile ecosystems.
Microplastics: Contaminants of Global Concern in the Anthropocene
This review summarizes the state of knowledge on microplastics as a global contaminant, covering their sources, distribution in different environments, and potential ecological and health effects. It frames microplastics as a defining pollution challenge of the Anthropocene era.
High Abundances of Microplastic Pollution in Deep-Sea Sediments: Evidence from Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
Microplastic pollution was investigated in deep-sea sediments from Antarctic and Southern Ocean regions, finding high abundances that varied among sites. The study confirmed that microplastics are accumulating in the remote Antarctic deep-sea environment, with evidence going back to scientific literature from the 1980s that has accelerated in recent years.
Microplastics in polar regions: An early warning to the world's pristine ecosystem
This review summarized evidence for microplastic contamination in Arctic and Antarctic environments — including water, sea ice, sediment, and biota — characterizing polar regions as sinks for globally transported plastic particles and calling for improved monitoring to track long-term trends.
Exploring potential effects of microplastic contamination in Antarctic soils
Researchers reviewed the potential effects of microplastic contamination in Antarctic soils, synthesizing available evidence on microplastic occurrence, polymer composition, and ecological impacts in one of Earth's most pristine terrestrial environments. The review found that microplastics are present even in remote Antarctic soil ecosystems and may pose risks to soil invertebrates and microbial communities that underpin fragile polar food webs.
The State and Future of Antarctic Environments in a Global Context
This review assessed the state of Antarctic environments in a global context, finding that the region faces substantial anthropogenic pressures comparable to other global environments despite its reputation for isolation and pristine condition. The authors argue that Antarctic environmental management is inadequately represented in international policy frameworks.
Macro- and Microplastics in the Antarctic Environment: Ongoing Assessment and Perspectives
This review assesses macro- and microplastic contamination in Antarctica, finding that despite environmental protections, coastal areas near research stations and tourist sites show plastic pollution, and calls for standardized monitoring methods to improve data comparability.
Assessing the current state of plastic pollution research in Antarctica: Knowledge gaps and recommendations
This review assessed the current state of research on plastic pollution in Antarctica, one of the most remote regions on Earth. Researchers found that despite its isolation, plastic contamination has been detected across Antarctic environments and wildlife, though significant knowledge gaps remain. The study recommends standardized sampling methods and more comprehensive monitoring to better understand the true extent of plastic pollution in Antarctic ecosystems.
Understanding the new threat of microplastic pollution in the Ross Sea: a review
This review summarized what is known about microplastic pollution in the Ross Sea near Antarctica, one of the world's most remote and ecologically important ocean regions. The study raises alarm that even this protected area is contaminated, threatening its pristine ecosystem and the unique species that depend on it.
Microplastics in Antarctic air: revealing current findings
This review examines the growing body of evidence on microplastic air pollution in Antarctica, one of the most remote places on Earth. Researchers found that both micro- and nanoplastics have been detected in Antarctic air, posing potential threats to this fragile ecosystem and its freshwater reserves. The study emphasizes that global action to reduce microplastic emissions is essential, since these particles can travel vast distances through the atmosphere.
Microplastic Pollution in the Polar Oceans – A Review
Microplastic pollution has reached even the remote Arctic and Antarctic polar oceans, making it a truly global environmental problem. This review summarizes what is known about polar microplastic contamination, highlights a surge in plastic waste linked to COVID-19-era demand, and calls for more research on how these particles affect polar ecosystems.
Microplastic Pollution in Penguins from Antarctic Peninsula
Researchers investigated microplastic pollution in penguins from the Antarctic Peninsula, examining the presence and characteristics of plastic particles in these seabirds as indicators of contamination in one of the most remote marine ecosystems on Earth.