Microplastics in surface snow from SE-Dome, southeastern Greenland Ice Sheet

The polar ice sheets can be regarded as samplers and archives of deposited aerosols, including microplastics (MPs). Nevertheless, there are very few examples to date of studies of MPs in snow from ice sheets. We have conducted preliminary investigations of MPs (> 10 µm) in surface snow from the southeastern dome (SE-Dome) of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Analyses combining fluorescence microscopy and micro-Fourier Transform Infrared (micro-FTIR) spectroscopy detected nine microplastic (MP) types, mostly with fragmentary shapes. Almost all fragmentary MPs were smaller than 50 µm, but most fiber MPs were in the larger size classes (> 50 µm). The number of MPs observed generally increased concomitantly with decreasing size. The MP concentrations were 45–64 particles/L, with an average of 54 particles/L. These findings suggest important implications for better understanding of the nature and mechanism of the long-distance atmospheric transport of MPs.