In February and March 2021, the research team took 17 water samples from the southern Weddell Sea to investigate the concentration of microplastics. Photo: Clara Leistenschneider The pollution of the Southern Ocean with microplastics has been significantly...
It has been known for several years that plastic fibers can even be found in the snow of the high Arctic and Antarctic. What was puzzling, however, was why hardly any other shapes of microplastics were found. Photo: Michael Wenger Why are microplastics found in the...
Plastic pollution is omnipresent on many of Svalbard’s beaches. (Photo: Julia Hager) Along with climate change, environmental pollution is one of the most pressing problems in the Arctic and Antarctic. For some years now, research has increasingly focussed on...
The latest findings and strategies to combat plastic pollution in the Arctic were discussed in various panels. (Photo: Julia Hager) The second International Symposium on Plastic in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic in Reykjavík showed important successes in the fight against...
Sea ice is one of the sources of microplastics in the Barents Sea during ice melt in spring and summer. When new sea ice forms in the fall and winter, microplastics that enter the Arctic via the atmosphere and ocean currents become trapped in the ice. Image: Julia...