Long-range atmospheric transport of microplastics across the southern hemisphere

Qiqing Chen, Guitao Shi (), Laura E. Revell, Jun Zhang, Chencheng Zuo, Danhe Wang, Eric C. Le Ru, Guangmei Wu and Denise M. Mitrano
Additional contact information
Qiqing Chen: East China Normal University
Guitao Shi: East China Normal University
Laura E. Revell: University of Canterbury
Jun Zhang: New York University Shanghai
Chencheng Zuo: East China Normal University
Danhe Wang: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University
Eric C. Le Ru: School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
Guangmei Wu: School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University
Denise M. Mitrano: ETH Zurich

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Airborne microplastics (MPs) can undergo long range transport to remote regions. Yet there is a large knowledge gap regarding the occurrence and burden of MPs in the marine boundary layer, which hampers comprehensive modelling of their global atmospheric transport. In particular, the transport efficiency of MPs with different sizes and morphologies remains uncertain. Here we show a hemispheric-scale analysis of airborne MPs along a cruise path from the mid-Northern Hemisphere to Antarctica. We present the inaugural measurements of MPs concentrations over the Southern Ocean and interior Antarctica and find that MPs fibers are transported more efficiently than MPs fragments along the transect, with the transport dynamics of MPs generally similar to those of non-plastic particles. Morphology is found to be the dominant factor influencing the hemispheric transport of MPs to remote Antarctic regions. This study underlines the importance of long-range atmospheric transport in MPs cycling dynamics in the environment.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43695-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-43695-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-43695-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().