Microplas­tic Preva­lence in the Wed­dell Sea Region

Nek­ton Foundation

Nekton’s project will help reveal the preva­lence and type of microplas­tics in the Wed­dell Sea in Antarc­ti­ca — using sam­ples of sed­i­ment from the region, all col­lect­ed dur­ing the 2019 Wed­dell Sea Expe­di­tion, also fund­ed by the Flotil­la Foundation.

The Wed­dell Sea Expe­di­tion pro­vid­ed the first oppor­tu­ni­ty to col­lect sam­ples of sed­i­ment from the seabed, water from dif­fer­ent depths, ice from sea ice and the ice shelf and aerosols from the air. Using this unique com­bi­na­tion of sam­ples, this research would be the first of its kind and is like­ly to deliv­er a sci­en­tif­ic step-change in our under­stand­ing of the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion path­ways and preva­lence of microplas­tics in Antarc­ti­ca, with impli­ca­tions for oth­er remote loca­tions globally.

For more infor­ma­tion visit:

https://​nek​ton​mis​sion​.org/

https://​wed​dellsea​ex​pe​di​tion​.org/