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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Arctic ice carries heavy freight of plastic

Many of the microplastic particles in northern sea ice originated thousands of kilometres to the south.
Melt pond on Arctic sea ice

Sea ice in the Arctic carries an abundance of microscopic particles from items such as food packaging. Credit: Alfred Wegener Institute/S. Hendricks

Sea ice in the Arctic holds vast amounts of plastic waste, which could be released as the ice thins and shrinks in the rapidly warming region.

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Nature 557, 8 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-04967-8

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