How far has the plastic pollution spread? An environmental study published recently in the UK’s Nature and Communications magazine stated that once pure sea ice is becoming a temporary 'repository' for plastic particles – sea ice contains a lot of plastic particles ( Plastics less than 5 mm in diameter, which diffuse into the Arctic Ocean as the sea ice moves. This discovery also confirmed that a large number of plastic particles may be released into the ocean due to the sea ice melting caused by climate change.
Every year a large amount of plastic waste flows into the ocean, where large pieces of plastic decompose into particles. According to a previous study, trillions of plastic particles have appeared in Arctic sea ice, containing up to 240 plastics per cubic meter of sea ice. Particles, this density is about 2000 times that of the large Pacific Ocean garbage floating plastic particles.
This time, the Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research Scientist Elke Picken and his colleagues analyzed the composition of the plastic particles in the ice core and the drift trajectory of sea ice, identified using an ice growth model. What areas of plastic particles were trapped in ice during sea ice growth and identified the unique composition of polymers in ice cores of different origins. The study also showed that these sea ice samples originate from the Meiya basin and the Eurasian basin. Mostly through the Arctic throughrift (Transpolar Drift) through the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
The researchers believe that the distribution of plastic particles in the central Arctic Ocean is much more complicated than previously thought. More seriously, the plastic particles released due to the ablation of sea ice are likely to be spread over the Arctic ocean surface and deep water areas, and filtered by the ocean. Predators eat, stay in their bodies, and then pass through the food chain.