The paint chip problem

Sampling seawater for microplastics is usually quite simple. Researchers often hang nets from the back of the ship and tow them along the water surface. In the Antarctic, however, there's a problem with this method. Since the concentrations of microplastics are very low here, you end up with half of the sampled fragments being contaminated with paint chips from the research vessel. Find out how the two researchers Gabriel Erni Cassola and Kevin Leuenberger solved the issue in their latest Antarctic blog post.

Catch up with our intrepid researchers in the Southern Ocean. Don’t miss their latest blog post entry, available here:  

In our “2MB field notes from Antarctica” blog series, the two researchers from the University of Basel give insights into their work and life on board the German icebreaker “Polarstern” that is sailing in the Southern Ocean. The scientists are studying how animals and bacteria in the Antarctic are affected by microplastics.