保护极地野生动物免受微塑料侵害

In January, surface seawater near the southwestern Antarctic Peninsula had a microplastic concentration of 115,226 particles per square kilometer (1), which is 18 times the global median. Because they receive continuous inputs through atmospheric and oceanic pathways, the polar regions have become global sinks for plastic pollution (2). This ongoing accumulation, which increased by about 3% per year between 1933 and 2012 (3), is driven largely by particles with diameters of less than 50 µm that have been transported in the air for up to 6000 km (4). International partners must collaborate to mitigate harmful microplastic pollution in polar regions. These smaller microplastic particles (SMPs) in polar regions are now entering local food webs and building up in biological tissues. …