Microplastic in sediments from Kongsfjorden, Svalbard

Svalbard is known to be a place where macroplastics accumulate on beaches.[1] Besides those yearly clean-ups, very little is known about the (micro)plastic levels at other locations and in other compartments. Kongsfjorden is a relevant place to study microplastic pollution since it has been studied for decades with regard to sedimentation processes, hydrodynamics and plankton communities for example. [2,3] During the Kongsfjorden cruise in the summer 2018, more than forty sediment samples have been collected using a box corer at five different locations, defining a transect inshore-offshore through the fjord. At each location, between 4 and 12 replicates have been collected, which is quite uncommon in Arctic studies. The potential microplastics have been extracted thanks to a density separation protocol using saturated saltwater. Particular precautions regarding contamination have been taken and different blank samples have been run. The samples have now to be analysed through Raman spectroscopy. That will allow us to clearly determine the plastic nature of the particles as well as their polymer. Those analyses will be performed this winter and the final results will be available in late February. We expect a gradient of contamination increasing from the inner to the outer part of the fjord. We also think that fibers will be the major shape because the main source of microplastics in certainly the sewage outlet that releases washing machine effluents, among other wastewater. Given that, we expect a majority of polyethylene, polypropylene and polyester fibers in our samples. This study will provide one of the first results on microplastic levels in sediment around Svalbard.