Underappreciated menace of nanoplastic air pollution revealed in Atlantic Ocean research
by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
Plastic air pollution impacts marine ecosystems globally, with animals affected by entanglement and ingestion of each giant and small plastic particles. Whereas microplastics have been broadly studied, information on nanoplastics-particles below 1 um-has remained restricted on account of their minute dimension and analytical challenges.
A 2020 expedition aboard the Dutch analysis vessel RV Pelagia, led by scientists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Analysis (UFZ) and Utrecht College, aimed to deal with this information hole. The workforce sampled seawater at 12 areas alongside a transect from the European continental shelf to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Sampling occurred at depths of 10 m, 1,000 m, and 30 m above the seabed to look at each vertical and horizontal nanoplastic distribution.
Lead creator Dr Dusan Materic and colleagues used a thermal desorption proton switch response mass spectrometer (TD-PTR-MS) to detect nanoplastics. This methodology combusts particles to launch identifiable hint gases, enabling correct measurement of plastic sorts and concentrations primarily based on their chemical fingerprints.
Nanoplastic particles have been detected in any respect sampled depths. “They’re current all over the place in such giant portions that we are able to now not neglect them ecologically,” stated Materic. PET, PS, and PVC-commonly present in shopper plastics like bottles and packaging-were most prevalent. These polymers have been persistently discovered within the higher ocean layer, attributed to atmospheric deposition and riverine inputs.
At mid-depths, PET dominated, significantly within the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, a recognized accumulation zone for floating microplastics. Close to the seafloor, concentrations have been decrease, although PET was nonetheless discovered even at depths over 4,500 meters, possible from artificial textile fibers or unexplored degradation processes. “Nanoplastic and nanoparticles are so small that the bodily legal guidelines governing bigger particles typically now not apply,” Materic famous.
Surprisingly, no nanoparticles of polyethylene or polypropylene-materials frequent in plastic baggage and packaging-were discovered. These is perhaps remodeling or sinking by way of unknown mechanisms, or just not detectable utilizing present devices.
Extrapolating from the collected information, researchers estimate that roughly 27 million tonnes of nanoplastic-12 million of PET, 6.5 million of PS, and eight.5 million of PVC-reside within the prime 200 meters of the North Atlantic. “That is in the identical order of magnitude because the estimated mass of macro- and microplastics for all the Atlantic,” stated Materic. The findings recommend nanoplastic air pollution is a significant, beforehand ignored part of oceanic plastic contamination.
Analysis Report:Nanoplastic concentrations throughout the North Atlantic
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Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Analysis – UFZ
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