Details zur Publikation

Kategorie Textpublikation
Referenztyp Zeitschriften
DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-84210-9
Lizenz creative commons licence
Titel (primär) Using a citizen science approach to assess nanoplastics pollution in remote high-altitude glaciers
Autor Jurkschat, L.; Gill, A.J.; Milner, R.; Holzinger, R.; Evangeliou, N.; Eckhardt, S.; Materić, D.
Quelle Scientific Reports
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
Department EAC
Band/Volume 15
Seite von art. 1864
Sprache englisch
Topic T9 Healthy Planet
Daten-/Softwarelinks https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14180715
Supplements https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41598-024-84210-9/MediaObjects/41598_2024_84210_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Keywords Microplastics; Nanoplastics; Thermal desorption-proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS); Atmospheric transport; Citizen science
Abstract Nanoplastics are suspected to pollute every environment on Earth, including very remote areas reached via atmospheric transport. We approached the challenge of measuring environmental nanoplastics by combining high-sensitivity TD-PTR-MS (thermal desorption-proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry) with trained mountaineers sampling high-altitude glaciers (“citizen science”). Particles < 1 μm were analysed for common polymers (polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene and tire wear particles), revealing nanoplastic concentrations ranging 2–80 ng mL− 1 at five of 14 sites. The dominant polymer types found in this study were tire wear, polystyrene and polyethylene particles (41%, 28% and 12%, respectively). Lagrangian dispersion modelling was used to reconstruct possible sources of micro- and nanoplastic emissions for those observations, which appear to lie largely to the west of the Alps. France, Spain and Switzerland have the highest contributions to the modelled emissions. The citizen science approach was found to be feasible providing strict quality control measures are in place, and is an effective way to be able to collect data from remote and inaccessible regions across the world.
dauerhafte UFZ-Verlinkung https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=30263
Jurkschat, L., Gill, A.J., Milner, R., Holzinger, R., Evangeliou, N., Eckhardt, S., Materić, D. (2025):
Using a citizen science approach to assess nanoplastics pollution in remote high-altitude glaciers
Sci. Rep. 15 , art. 1864 10.1038/s41598-024-84210-9