"How Does Plastic get into the Arctic?"

Untouched vast expanses of ice as far as the eye can see. A pristine wilderness that appears clean and pure, completely untouched by human influence.

Did you also just immediately think of the Arctic? The one place on earth that belongs entirely to animals and where it is a rarity to stumble across traces of human life?

Then I am sorry to disappoint you. The first impression is deceptive.

Led by Dr. Melanie Bergmann, researchers at the German Alfred Wegener Institute published a study in April 2022 in which they report finding microplastics both on the Arctic seafloor and in icebergs.

But how can that be, since so few people live there?

In fact, the low population density in Arctic regions

contributes to the problem. In small Arctic communities, recycling facilities are rare and waste management is handled inadequately. Often plastic waste is simply collected by self-haul at the edge of the sea in large dumpsites. More effective community-haul systems are limited to larger communities, such as Greenland's capital, Nuuk. This can lead to higher microplastic densities in certain areas. "In the Canadian Arctic, ” the

by Solveig Schneider

Gießen, Germany

report states,

“plastic litter densities were seven times higher near communities compared with more remote locations. Open dumpsites and winter travel activities were identified as potential sources. ’’

As a result of this loose handling of waste, much of it enters the oceans and is widely dispersed via currents, winds, and animals. For the researchers it was hard to differentiate where a piece of plastic exactly came from. But in general they were able to make a distinction between two main sources – local sources and distant sources, which they subdivided into land-based and sea-based sources.

According to the study, those local sources notably include key

by Solveig Schneider

Gießen, Germany

sectors of maritime activity, such as aquaculture, offshore industrial activity, cruise tourism and fisheries, but the plastic can also be from domestic origin, such as insufficient waste water treatment.

To demonstrate that inadequate wastewater treatment is a major contributor to microparticle emissions, the study consulted the following example.

A wastewater treatment plant in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, was able to cut 99% of local human-induced microparticle emissions, by implementing both mechanical and biological treatment of the wastewater.

Another of the main sources of microplastic debris in the Arctic, a local sea-based source, are fisheries. According to the study, fibers and threats from discarded fishing gear accounted for 27-100% of the beach litter in Svalbard and represent the most important microplastic source in the Barents Sea. Those fragments are buoyant, are caught by currents, and are eventually washed ashore.

But microplastic does not necessarily have to come from Arctic regions. Most of the washed up plastics float with ocean currents from the Atlantic and Pacific into more northern, Arctic waters, such as the Bering Sea, Chukchi Sea, or Barents Sea.

This transport can be accelerated

by Solveig Schneider

Gießen, Germany by storms, waves and eddies, and the spread of plastic moves through ingestion and excretion by biota. Seabirds in particular play a major role in the process of carrying microplastics over hundreds, if not thousands, of miles.

Another distant transport route for microplastics is actually the air, or more specifically winds, which carry the small plastic particles into the atmosphere and from there spread them across the globe. Through precipitation they finally reach the ice of the Arctic and even gather in icebergs.

As icebergs continue to float, the plastic spreads even further.

Due to the distribution of winds, eddies and currents, some special accumulation areas have emerged, such as in the Eurasian basin or on beaches of the Norwegian Sea.

However, no final statement can be made regarding the exact number of plastics contributed in each case, because of too little field data. But how does the whole thing now affect the Arctic ecosystems?

Recent data says that a total of 131 species are affected by plastic pollution in the Arctic. It enters the food web through ingestion and affects a whole range of species, including humans. There is still data needed to make general statements about exact effects, but animals that have consumed plastic may starve to death or they get choked by getting tangled in larger plastic pieces. Furthermore, well-traveled plastic pieces also serve as a transport route for other species to the Arctic or as habitat for organisms such as bryozoans. There is still research required on multi-stressor effects, changes in gene expression, and reduced growth in Arctic organisms ingesting plastic.

Even though plastic pollution and climate change seem to have little to do with each other at first glance, it appears that plastic contributes to the fast warming of the Arctic. Icebergs are rapidly melting, releasing more and more frozen plastic into the environment. The rising microplastic concentration might function as small ‘‘solar panels, ’’ which contributes to even further melting of Arctic ice. Since plastics travel so far and affect

by Solveig Schneider

Gießen, Germany regions all over the globe, countries have to work together to successfully mitigate the consequences of plastic pollution.

With this in mind, think twice before throwing your plastic waste into nature. You don't know whether it might end up in the Arctic and cause an animal to choke on it.

Bergmann, Melanie, et al. 2022. ‘‘Plastic Pollution

in the Arctic.

’’ Nature Reviews 3 (May): 324-37. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00279-8.

Photograph by Subhankar Chatterjee and Shivika Sharma, Wikimedia Commons