MOSCOW, September 26. Scientists from the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov (NAFU) conducted a comprehensive analysis of microplastic pollution in the Northern Dvina basin, the White and Barents Seas, which will make it possible to better assess the threat of such pollution and develop specialized treatment systems, the press reported. university service.
World plastic production, according to experts, ranges from 300 to 375 million tons per year. When structures containing plastic wear out, so-called microplastic is formed, which, as a rule, ends up in rivers and accumulates in the oceans.
Microplastics ranging in size from 100 nanometers to five millimeters are considered hazardous to the environment, but their effects on humans and other biological systems have not yet been fully studied. The main sources of this pollution are urban dust, synthetic clothing, car tires and fishing nets.
Experts from NArFU determined the volume and composition of microplastics in bottom sediments and waters of the Northern Dvina, White and Barents Seas. According to them, the level of microplastics in river waters is expected to correspond to the level of population of a particular river basin.
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“So, the Northern Dvina is much more polluted than Siberian rivers, but inferior to European rivers, for example the Rhine,” said the director of the Center for Communal Use of the NGO “Arctic” NArFU Dmitry Kosyakov.
Approximately 80 percent of the detected particles are polyethylene granules, predominantly 200-300 micrometers in size. Scientists note that due to the structure of the currents of the World Ocean, the Barents Sea has now become one of the main centers of microplastic pollution on the planet.
According to researchers, bottom sediments of the Northern Dvina can accumulate up to 117 milligrams of microplastic per kilogram on average per year. Due to strong currents and during spring floods, these reserves are released and end up in the ocean.
«We have done quite painstaking work, since every particle needs to be examined, and in each sample there can be more than a hundred of them and dozens and even hundreds of such samples are needed,” said Alexander Kozhevnikov, a researcher at the Arktika Center for Collective Use.
The study used a set of the most modern analytical methods using the unique infrastructure of NArFU, for example, the µFT-IR method, which makes it possible to identify each microparticle and its material according to the infrared absorption spectrum.
In the future, the scientific team plans to expand the area of their research to the entire Russian Arctic.