Tag: Plastic

Krill play a key role in carbon storage – plastic disrupts this process

Julia Hager

Plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean may hinder the efficient transport of carbon bound by Antarctic krill to the deep ocean, with implications for the global carbon cycle and thus for global warming.

Shape matters: Transport of microplastics to the polar regions

Julia Hager

Why are microplastics found in the polar regions almost exclusively in fibre shape? The latest experiments and simulations provide the answer: fibres can be transported much further in the atmosphere than particles with a different shape.

Environmental pollution in the polar regions in the focus of research

Julia Hager

Along with climate change, environmental pollution is one of the most pressing problems in the Arctic and Antarctic and has increasingly become the focus of research in recent years.

Plastic in the Arctic: Looking back at Reykjavík 2023

Julia Hager

The second International Symposium on Plastics in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic in Reykjavík showed important successes, but also revealed where urgent research and action is needed.

Second international symposium on plastics in the Arctic in Reykjavík

Julia Hager

Reykjavík has organised a high-level symposium on plastic pollution in the Arctic for today and tomorrow.

Polyester fibers find their way into Arctic marine mammal tissues

Julia Hager

Microplastics ingested by whales, dolphins and seals do not necessarily remain in their digestive tract or are excreted but can enter the fatty tissue of various body parts or even the lungs.

Arctic microbes can degrade bio-plastics

Julia Hager

Swiss researchers discovered microorganisms in Greenland, Svalbard and the Alps that produce enzymes that can break down plastic even at relatively cool temperatures.

Europe's trash pollutes Svalbard's coasts

Dr. Michael Wenger

Do Antarctic fish ingest microplastics?

Julia Hager

Two Swiss scientists are addressing the question by studying Antarctic fish and invertebrates for microplastics.

Nanoplastics detected in polar ice

Julia Hager

A team of European researchers has for the first time been able to detect nanoparticles of plastic in decades-old ice from Greenland and in Antarctic sea ice.