Gallery
Microplastics: A truly colourful pile
Scientists define microplastics as collection of small and large fragments, pellets, fibers, sheets, and other objects smaller than five millimeters. They come in different shapes and colors - a diversity that it actually breathtaking, as this gallery shows.
The photos are provided by our colleagues from the Chesapeake Bay Program. The images were taken by Will Parson at the laboratory of Dr. Lance Yonkos in the Department of Environmental Science & Technology at the University of Maryland. Find more images on the Chesapeake Bay Program Flickr page.
News
„Wissen der Vielen“ prize for Artic project
Anna Natalie Meyer, former AWI biologist, is one of the first winners of the "Wissen der Vielen" prize for Citizen Science. The prize was awarded for the first time in 2023 and honors outstanding scientific achievements. Anna Natalie Meyer received the 3rd prize for her work on the investigation of plastic waste on Arctic beaches on Spitsbergen, which she published together with Birgit Lutz and Melanie Bergmann. An important part of the project was the participation of citizen scientists during tourist trips.
New paper on plastic removal technologies
Mechanical cleaning devices: A remedy for marine plastic pollution or a danger to marine life? This is the question addressed in a new paper by an international group of scientists published in the journal One Earth. Lead author is AWI biologist Melanie Bergmann. The Article shows that plastic removal technologies can cause harm and cannot provide a solution to global plastic pollution. Instead, the international focus needs to be on preventing plastic pollution. To the original press release.
Arctic ice algae heavily contaminated with microplastics
The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea - and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have now reported this in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Alles zum Thema marine debris