Melosira arctica has ten times higher concentration of plastic particles than surrounding seawater. The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a th
On a Polarstern expedition in the Arctic, researchers led by biologist Melanie Bergmann from the Alfred Wegener Institute are investigating how much microplastic is in aggregates of the ice alga Melosira arctica and the seawater directly next to ice floes. Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / Mario HoppmannThe alga, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater.
“The speed at which the Alga descends means that it falls almost in a straight line below the edge of the ice. Marine snow, on the other hand, is slower and gets pushed sideways by currents so sinks further away. With the Melosira taking microplastics directly to the bottom, it helps explain why we measure higher microplastic numbers under the ice edge,” explains the AWI biologist.
Since the ice algae are an important food source for many deep-sea dwellers, the microplastic could thus enter the food web there. But it is also an important food source at the sea surface and could explain why microplastics were particularly widespread among ice-associated zooplankton organisms, as an earlier study with AWI participation shows.
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Arctic ice algae heavily contaminated with microplastics, reports new researchThe alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea—and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have now reported this in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
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