For the first time, New Zealand researchers from the University of Canterbury have discovered microplastics in freshly fallen snow in Antarctica. Not surprisingly, these tiny plastics can be toxic to plants and animals.
Microplastics on seemingly virgin snow
Pieces of plastic smaller than a grain of rice. Other researchers had already found it in the sea ice and surface waters of Antarctica, but this is the first time they have been reported in fresh snowfall. Something to alarm researchers. Alex Aves, PhD student at the University of Canterbury, and Dr Laura Revell, are behind this discovery. Their research was published in the scientific journal The Cryosphere.
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It’s a fact: microplastics now contaminate the entire planet, from mountain peaks, to the deepest oceans, to the fresh snow that has fallen on the Antarctic sea ice. Researchers took snow samples from the Ross Ice Shelf end of 2019, to determine if microplastics had been transferred from the atmosphere to the snow. No study had been carried out on this subject in Antarctica before this one.
These particles have an impact on the health of humans and the Earth
Dr. Laura Revell points out that “We were optimistic and really didn’t expect to find microplastics in such a pristine place far from any pollution. At least in appearance”. Unfortunately, fine plastic particles were found in each of the 19 samples taken from the Ross Ice Shelf. Alex Aves clarifies that “It’s incredibly sad, but the discovery of microplastics in fresh Antarctic snow highlights the extent of plastic pollution, even in the most remote parts of the world”.
Now we know that humans inadvertently eat and breathe microplastics. Obviously, this pollution damages human cells. In 2021, a study found that airborne microplastics are spreading around the world. The researchers found an average of 29 microplastic particles per liter of melted snowwhich is higher than previously reported marine concentrations in the surrounding Ross Sea and Antarctic sea ice.
Atmospheric modeling suggests they may have traveled thousands of miles through the air, the two experts say, but it’s just as likely that human presence in Antarctica left a mark. “microplastic fingerprint”. Subsequent research by Revell showed that microplastics in the atmosphere can trap radiation emitted by the Earth and contribute to climate change. On ice, they can cause localized heating.