Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions
Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions
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DOI：
10.1038/s41467-020-17201-9
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发表时间：
2020-07-14
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Stohl, A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Evangeliou, N.;Grythe, H.;Stohl, A.
近年来，微塑料对海洋、淡水和陆地的污染已被广泛讨论，而大气中的微塑料运输却在很大程度上被忽视。在这里，我们对道路交通产生的微塑料颗粒（TWP-轮胎磨损颗粒和BWP-制动器磨损颗粒）的大气传输进行了全球模拟，这是一个可以相对较好地量化的主要来源。我们发现这些粒子到偏远地区的高传输效率。约34%的粗TWP和30%的粗BWP（分别为100 ktyr（-1）和40 ktyr（-1））沉积在世界海洋中。这些数量与估计的直接和河流向海洋输送的TWP和纤维总量（64 ktyr（-1））相似。我们认为，北极可能是一个特别敏感的受体区域，在那里的TWP和BWP的光吸收特性也可能导致加速变暖和融化的冰冻圈。塑料污染是各种生态系统的一个关键问题，但大多数研究都集中在陆地和水生运输上，忽视了其他机制。在这里，作者表明，大气传输是偏远地区道路塑料污染的主要途径。
In recent years, marine, freshwater and terrestrial pollution with microplastics has been discussed extensively, whereas atmospheric microplastic transport has been largely overlooked. Here, we present global simulations of atmospheric transport of microplastic particles produced by road traffic (TWPs - tire wear particles and BWPs - brake wear particles), a major source that can be quantified relatively well. We find a high transport efficiencies of these particles to remote regions. About 34% of the emitted coarse TWPs and 30% of the emitted coarse BWPs (100ktyr(-1) and 40ktyr(-1) respectively) were deposited in the World Ocean. These amounts are of similar magnitude as the total estimated direct and riverine transport of TWPs and fibres to the ocean (64ktyr(-1)). We suggest that the Arctic may be a particularly sensitive receptor region, where the light-absorbing properties of TWPs and BWPs may also cause accelerated warming and melting of the cryosphere. Plastic pollution is a critical concern across diverse ecosystems, yet most research has focused on terrestrial and aquatic transport, neglecting other mechanisms. Here the authors show that atmospheric transport is a major pathway for road plastic pollution over remote regions.