Student or educator? Sign up with your school email and get 6 months of Pro free.
CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 872

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

High Quantities of Microplastic in Arctic Deep-Sea Sediments from the HAUSGARTEN Observatory

Open access
Bergmann, Melanie, Wirzberger, Vanessa, Krumpen, Thomas, Lorenz, Claudia, Primpke, Sebastian, Tekman, Mine B., Gerdts, Gunnar·2017·Environmental Science & Technology
DOI 10.1021/acs.est.7b03331
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Abstract Although mounting evidence suggests the ubiquity of microplastic in aquatic ecosystems worldwide, our knowledge of its distribution in remote environments such as Polar Regions and the deep sea is scarce. Here, we analyzed nine sediment samples taken at the HAUSGARTEN observatory in the Arctic at 2340–5570 m depth. Density separation by MicroPlastic Sediment Separator and treatment with Fenton’s reagent enabled analysis via Attenuated Total Reflection FTIR and μFTIR spectroscopy. Our analyses indicate the wide spread of high numbers of microplastics (42–6595 microplastics kg–1). The northernmost stations harbored the highest quantities, indicating sea ice as a possible transport vehicle. A positive correlation between microplastic abundance and chlorophyll a content suggests vertical export via incorporation in sinking (ice-) algal aggregates. Overall, 18 different polymers were detected. Chlorinated polyethylene accounted for the largest proportion (38%), followed by polyamide (22%) and polypropylene (16%). Almost 80% of the microplastics were ≤25 μm. The microplastic quantities are among the highest recorded from benthic sediments. This corroborates the deep sea as a major sink for microplastics and the presence of accumulation areas in this remote part of the world, fed by plastics transported to the North via the Thermohaline Circulation.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1021/acs.est.7b03331

Cites

11 of 11 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Show all 11 references

Research works printed but not linked: 51

  1. Jambeck, 2015, Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean, Science, 347, 768, 10.1126/science.1260352 · DOI · Paper page
  2. van Sebille, 2015, A global inventory of small floating plastic debris, Environ. Res. Lett., 10, 124006, 10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Andrady, 2015, Persistence of plastic litter in the oceans, 57, 10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_3 · DOI · Paper page
  4. Carpenter, 1972, Plastics on the Sargasso Sea Surface, Science, 175, 1240, 10.1126/science.175.4027.1240 · DOI
  5. Thompson, 2004, Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic?, Science, 304, 838, 10.1126/science.1094559 · DOI · Paper page
  6. Lusher, 2015, Microplastics in the marine environment: distribution, interactions and effects, 245, 10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_10 · DOI · Paper page
  7. Bergmann, 2017, Marine litter: Sea change for plastic pollution, Nature, 544, 297, 10.1038/544297a · DOI
  8. Jani, 1992, Further histological evidence of the gastrointestinal absorption of polystyrene nanospheres in the rat, Int. J. Pharm., 84, 245, 10.1016/0378-5173(92)90162-U · DOI
  9. Moore, 2001, A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 42, 1297, 10.1016/S0025-326X(01)00114-X · DOI · Paper page
  10. van Sebille, 2012, Origin, dynamics and evolution of ocean garbage patches from observed surface drifters, Environ. Res. Lett., 7, 044040, 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044040 · DOI
  11. Cózar, 2017, The Arctic Ocean as a dead end for floating plastics in the North Atlantic branch of the Thermohaline Circulation, Sci. Adv., 3, e1600582, 10.1126/sciadv.1600582 · DOI · Paper page
  12. Bergmann, 2012, Increase of litter at the Arctic deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 64, 2734, 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.09.018 · DOI
  13. Tekman, 2017, Marine litter on deep Arctic seafloor continues to increase and spreads to the North at the HAUSGARTEN observatory, Deep Sea Res., Part I, 120, 88, 10.1016/j.dsr.2016.12.011 · DOI
  14. Bergmann, 2016, Observations of floating anthropogenic litter in the Barents Sea and Fram Strait, Arctic, Polar Biol., 39, 553, 10.1007/s00300-015-1795-8 · DOI
  15. Obbard, 2014, Global warming releases microplastic legacy frozen in Arctic Sea ice, Earth's Future, 2, 2014EF000240, 10.1002/2014EF000240 · DOI
  16. Fischer, 2015, Plastic pollution of the Kuril-Kamchatka-trench area (NW Pacific), Deep Sea Res., Part II, 111, 399, 10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.08.012 · DOI
  17. Tagg, 2017, Fenton’s reagent for the rapid and efficient isolation of microplastics from wastewater, Chem. Commun., 53, 372, 10.1039/C6CC08798A · DOI · Paper page
  18. Soltwedel, 2016, Natural variability or anthropogenically-induced variation? Insights from 15 years of multidisciplinary observations at the arctic marine LTER site HAUSGARTEN, Ecol. Indic., 65, 89, 10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.10.001 · DOI
  19. Beszczynska-Möller, 2012, Variability in Atlantic water temperature and transport at the entrance to the Arctic Ocean, 1997–2010, ICES J. Mar. Sci., 69, 852, 10.1093/icesjms/fss056 · DOI
  20. Thiel, 1978, Benthos in upwelling regions, 124, 10.1007/978-3-642-66985-9_11 · DOI
  21. Yentsch, 1963, A method for the determination of phytoplankton chlorophyll and phaeophytin by fluorescence, Deep-Sea Res. Oceanogr. Abstr., 10, 221, 10.1016/0011-7471(63)90358-9 · DOI
  22. Holm-Hansen, 1965, Fluorometric determination of chlorophyll, ICES J. Mar. Sci., 30, 3, 10.1093/icesjms/30.1.3 · DOI
  23. Imhof, 2012, A novel, highly efficient method for the separation and quantification of plastic particles in sediments of aquatic environments, Limnol. Oceanogr.: Methods, 10, 524, 10.4319/lom.2012.10.524 · DOI · Paper page
  24. Norén, 2011, Survey of microscopic anthropogenic particles in Skagerrak, 1
  25. Mintenig, 2017, Identification of microplastic in effluents of waste water treatment plants using focal plane array-based micro-Fourier-transform infrared imaging, Water Res., 108, 365, 10.1016/j.watres.2016.11.015 · DOI · Paper page
  26. Claessens, 2013, New techniques for the detection of microplastics in sediments and field collected organisms, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 70, 227, 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.03.009 · DOI · Paper page
  27. Tagg, 2015, Identification and quantification of microplastics in wastewater using focal plane array-based reflectance micro-FT-IR imaging, Anal. Chem., 87, 6032, 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b00495 · DOI · Paper page
  28. Löder, 2015, Methodology used for the detection and identification of microplastics – a critical appraisal, 201, 10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_8 · DOI · Paper page
  29. Primpke, 2017, An automated approach for microplastics analysis using focal plane array (FPA) FTIR microscopy and image analysis, Anal. Methods, 9, 1499, 10.1039/C6AY02476A · DOI · Paper page
  30. Munari, 2016, Marine litter on Mediterranean shores: Analysis of composition, spatial distribution and sources in north-western Adriatic beaches, Waste Manage., 49, 483, 10.1016/j.wasman.2015.12.010 · DOI
  31. Leslie, 2017, Microplastics en route: Field measurements in the Dutch river delta and Amsterdam canals, wastewater treatment plants, North Sea sediments and biota, Environ. Int., 101, 133, 10.1016/j.envint.2017.01.018 · DOI · Paper page
  32. Maes, 2017, Microplastics Baseline Surveys at the Water Surface and in Sediments of the North-East Atlantic, Front. Mar. Sci., 4, 1, 10.3389/fmars.2017.00135 · DOI · Paper page
  33. Vianello, 2013, Microplastic particles in sediments of Lagoon of Venice, Italy: first observations on occurrence, spatial patterns and identification, Estuarine, Coastal Shelf Sci., 130, 54, 10.1016/j.ecss.2013.03.022 · DOI · Paper page
  34. Claessens, 2011, Occurrence and distribution of microplastics in marine sediments along the Belgian coast, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 62, 2199, 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.06.030 · DOI · Paper page
  35. Bergmann, Citizen scientists reveal: marine litter pollutes Arctic beaches and affects Arctic wildlife, Mar. Pollut. Bull.
  36. Lalande, 2011, Downward particulate organic carbon export at high temporal resolution in the eastern Fram Strait: influence of Atlantic Water on flux composition, Mar. Ecol.: Prog. Ser., 440, 127, 10.3354/meps09385 · DOI
  37. Khatmullina, 2017, Settling velocity of microplastic particles of regular shapes, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 114, 871, 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.024 · DOI · Paper page
  38. Long, 2015, Interactions between microplastics and phytoplankton aggregates: Impact on their respective fates, Mar. Chem., 175, 39, 10.1016/j.marchem.2015.04.003 · DOI · Paper page
  39. Long, 2017, Interactions between polystyrene microplastics and marine phytoplankton lead to species-specific hetero-aggregation, Environ. Pollut., 228, 454, 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.05.047 · DOI · Paper page
  40. Boetius, 2013, Export of algal biomass from the melting arctic sea ice, Science, 339, 1430, 10.1126/science.1231346 · DOI
  41. Suess, 1980, Particulate organic carbon flux in the oceans-surface productivity and oxygen utilization, Nature, 288, 260, 10.1038/288260a0 · DOI · Paper page
  42. Soltwedel, 2003, The meiobenthos of the Molloy Deep (5600 m), Fram Strait, Arctic Ocean, Vie Milieu, 53, 1
  43. Soltwedel, 2009, Bathymetric patterns of megafaunal assemblages from the arctic deep-sea observatory HAUSGARTEN, Deep Sea Res., Part I, 56, 1856, 10.1016/j.dsr.2009.05.012 · DOI
  44. Taylor, 2016, Plastic microfibre ingestion by deep-sea organisms, Sci. Rep., 6, 33997, 10.1038/srep33997 · DOI · Paper page
  45. Kukulka, 2012, The effect of wind mixing on the vertical distribution of buoyant plastic debris, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L07601, 10.1029/2012GL051116 · DOI · Paper page
  46. Masiello, 1998, Black Carbon in Deep-Sea Sediments, Science, 280, 1911, 10.1126/science.280.5371.1911 · DOI · Paper page
  47. Fang, 2016, Abundance and sinking of particulate black carbon in the western Arctic and Subarctic Oceans, Sci. Rep., 6, 29959, 10.1038/srep29959 · DOI
  48. Stolte, 2015, Microplastic concentrations in beach sediments along the German Baltic coast, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 99, 216, 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.07.022 · DOI
  49. Shaw, 1994, Colour- and form-dependent loss of plastic micro-debris from the North Pacific Ocean, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 28, 39, 10.1016/0025-326X(94)90184-8 · DOI · Paper page
  50. Oliveros, 1997, Industrial waste water treatment: large scale development of a light-enhanced Fenton reaction, Chem. Eng. Process., 36, 397, 10.1016/S0255-2701(97)00011-1 · DOI
  51. Löder, 2015, Focal plane array detector-based micro-Fourier-transform infrared imaging for the analysis of microplastics in environmental samples, Env. Chem., 12, 563, 10.1071/EN14205 · DOI · Paper page

Cited by

See all 872

Metadata

Authors
Bergmann, M., Wirzberger, V., Krumpen, T., Lorenz, C., Primpke, S., Tekman, M. B., & Gerdts, G.
Venue
Environmental Science & Technology
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Published
2017-09-11
Volume
51
Issue
19
Pages
11000-11010
ISSN
  • 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-5851
DOI
10.1021/acs.est.7b03331
OpenAlex
W2748498801
Cited by
872
References
11
FWCI
30.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
hybrid
Licence
pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_ccbyncnd_termsofuse.html (vor, 35 d)
Funders
  • Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (NA)
  • Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft (NA)
  • Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (03F0734A)

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: High Quantities of Microplastic in Arctic Deep-Sea Sediments from the HAUSGARTEN Observatory. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1021/acs.est.7b03331
The paper
Bergmann, M., Wirzberger, V., Krumpen, T., Lorenz, C., Primpke, S., Tekman, M. B., & Gerdts, G. (2017). High Quantities of Microplastic in Arctic Deep-Sea Sediments from the HAUSGARTEN Observatory. Environmental Science & Technology. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b03331

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.