First evidence of microplastic contamination in the supraglacial debris of an alpine glacier

Ambrosini, Roberto; Azzoni, R.; Pittino, Francesca; Diolaiuti, Guglielmina; Franzetti, Andrea; Parolini, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2019.07.005

Cited by 265 publications

(128 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…For their part, Gonzáles-Pleiter et al (2020) found fibres in a remote polar fresh water lake and suspected that atmospheric deposition from local and distant sources was the origin of the microfibres [53]. Other studies have proven or modelled the transport of microplastics by winds [54,55] and indicate that the concentration of microplastics could vary from one season to another, depending on the regional human activity and the atmospheric conditions in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Velasco

Rard²,

Blois³

et al. 2020

Water

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The contamination of aquatic environments by microplastics has been largely documented in the last years, especially in oceans, rivers, and lakes, but their occurrence in remote mountain lakes has been scarcely considered. This work aims to investigate the presence and abundance of microplastics and fibres in a remote, alpine, and uninhabited lake in Switzerland (Sassolo). In this study, the water column as well as the sediments were analysed. The isolation of microplastics and fibres from the samples of the sediment was achieved with a digestion process using H2O2 and a density separation technique with NaI. Classification of microparticles (from 5 mm to 125 μm) was first developed with an optical microscope. Infrared spectroscopy was then used to identify and characterize the chemical nature of the microplastics and fibres. On average, 2.6 microplastics and 4.4 fibres per litre were identified in the water column. On the other hand, the results of the sediment samples revealed significant fibre concentrations compared to plastic microparticles (514 fibres and 33 microplastics per kilogram). The most abundant types of microplastic identified in the samples were composed of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). Microplastic and fibre sources were not determined, but it is likely that the number of human activities in this area as well as aerial deposition are contributing to contaminate this remote environment with microplastics and fibres.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Velasco

Rard²,

Blois³

et al. 2020

Water

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“…For example, in several regions of the world, thermally driven flows represent a systematic characteristic of mountain weather and climate (Hann, 1879;Thyer, 1966;Kastendeuch and Kaufmann, 1997;Egger et al, 2000;Ying et al, 2009;Serafin and Zardi, 2010;Schmidli, 2013;Zardi and Whiteman, 2013;Wagner et al, 2014a;Giovannini et al, 2017;Schmidli et al, 2018) favouring regular exchange of air masses between the plain and the highland sites (Weissmann et al, 2005;Gohm et al, 2009;Cong et al, 2015;Dhungel et al, 2018), with likely consequences on human health (Loomis et al, 2013;EEA, 2015;WHO, 2016), ecosystems (e.g. Carslaw et al, 2010;EMEP, 2016;Bourgeois et al, 2018;Burkhardt et al, 2018;Allen et al, 2019;Ambrosini et al, 2019;Rizzi et al, 2019), climate (Ramanathan et al, 2001;Clerici and Mélin, 2008;Philipona, 2013;Pepin et al, 2015;Zeng et al, 2015;Tudoroiu et al, 2016;Samset, 2018) and, not least, local economy, through loss of tourism revenues (de Freitas, 2003;Keiser et al, 2018). These phenomena have worldwide relevance, since nearly one-quarter of the Earth's land mass can be classified as mountainous areas (Blyth, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transport of Po Valley aerosol pollution to the northwestern Alps – Part 2: Long-term impact on air quality

et al. 2019

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Abstract. This work evaluates the impact of trans-regional aerosol transport from the Po basin on particulate matter levels (PM10) and physico-chemical characteristics in the northwestern Alps. To this purpose, we exploited a multi-sensor, multi-platform database over a 3-year period (2015–2017) accompanied by a series of numerical simulations. The experimental setup included operational (24/7) vertically resolved aerosol profiles by an automated lidar ceilometer (ALC), vertically integrated aerosol properties by a Sun/sky photometer, and surface measurements of aerosol mass concentration, size distribution and chemical composition. This experimental set of observations was then complemented by modelling tools, including numerical weather prediction (NWP), trajectory statistical (TSM) and chemical transport (CTM) models, plus positive matrix factorisation (PMF) on both the PM10 chemical speciation analyses and particle size distributions. In a first companion study, we showed and discussed through detailed case studies the 4-D phenomenology of recurrent episodes of aerosol transport from the polluted Po basin to the northwestern Italian Alps. Here we draw more general and statistically significant conclusions on the frequency of occurrence of this phenomenon, and on the quantitative impact of this regular, wind-driven, aerosol-rich “atmospheric tide” on PM10 air-quality levels in this alpine environment. Based on an original ALC-derived classification, we found that an advected aerosol layer is observed at the receptor site (Aosta) in 93 % of days characterized by easterly winds (i.e. from the Po basin) and that the longer the time spent by air masses over the Po plain the higher this probability. Frequency of these advected aerosol layers was found to be rather stable over the seasons with about 50 % of the days affected. Duration of these advection events ranges from few hours up to several days, while aerosol layer thickness ranges from 500 up to 4000 m. Our results confirm this phenomenon to be related to non-local emissions, to act at the regional scale and to largely impact both surface levels and column-integrated aerosol properties. In Aosta, PM10 and aerosol optical depth (AOD) values increase respectively up to factors of 3.5 and 4 in dates under the Po Valley influence. Pollution transport events were also shown to modify the mean chemical composition and typical size of particles in the target region. In fact, increase in secondary species, and mainly nitrate- and sulfate-rich components, were found to be effective proxies of the advections, with the transported aerosol responsible for at least 25 % of the PM10 measured in the urban site of Aosta, and adding up to over 50 µg m−3 during specific episodes, thus exceeding alone the EU established daily limit. From a modelling point of view, our CTM simulations performed over a full year showed that the model is able to reproduce the phenomenon, but markedly underestimates its impact on PM10 levels. As a sensitivity test, we employed the ALC-derived identification of aerosol advections to re-weight the emissions from outside the boundaries of the regional domain in order to match the observed PM10 field. This simplified exercise indicated that an increase in such “external” emissions by a factor of 4 in the model is needed to halve the model PM10 maximum deviations and to significantly reduce the PM10 normalised mean bias forecasts error (from −35 % to 5 %).

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“…Every place humans have touched, we have left behind our presence in the form of these tiny microplastic particles and fibres. Even in remote places, such as glacier regions (Ambrosini et al, 2019), these particles have been found before. It is probably even possible that we left behind microplastics at the 1969 moon landing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Assessment of Microplastics in the Environment – Fibres: The Disregarded Twin?

et al. 2019

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Dealing with the pollution of plastics into the environment is considered one of the major challenges of the current century. Especially microplastic pollutions are considered a significant threat to human life, especially since once these plastic particles make their way into the environment, removing them is almost impossible. Unfortunately, when researches look for microplastics in the environment, synthetic fibres are too often disregarded. This is a mistake considering that a big part of human clothing consists purely of synthetic fibres, meaning they are omnipresent in every part of human activity and so are their emissions. This work takes a critical look at the state of the art analysis methods for microplastics in soil, water and air, with a special focus on their ability (or inability) to detect fibrous materials. A case study in the form of a critical evaluation was made to highlight common problems when detecting microplastic fibres, it focused primarily on the sampling of large water volumes. Another case study explores the difficulties of microscopy in the analysis of microplastics. Furthermore, the sources of fibre pollution and which pathways they take in the environment before the end up in the maritime system are explored. Finally, this work makes a call for the creation and enforcement of standardized methods, which would potentially solve many of the current problems.

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First evidence of microplastic contamination in the supraglacial debris of an alpine glacier

Cited by 265 publications

References 25 publications

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Transport of Po Valley aerosol pollution to the northwestern Alps – Part 2: Long-term impact on air quality

Assessment of Microplastics in the Environment – Fibres: The Disregarded Twin?

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