In March 2024 on a NERC/BAS funded research expeditions researchers Liam and Alice, working for Stefan, travelled to the Harland-Cox Arctic research station in Svalbard. The project focused on collecting glacier ice, snow and airborne particles to assess microplastic (MP) presence and concentration. The topic of MP pollution in the polar regions is slowly growing and the team are planning to publish their findings over the next few months. Key in this will be the first study of MP in terrestrial ice, as existing studies have focused on sea ice analysis.
The trip was support by the station leader, Iain “Cheese” Rudkin, who provided the much-needed guidance and training. As field researchers know having suitable weather is key to getting all the samples you want! Weather temperatures ranged from negative single to double digits (-3 to -20⁰C), and generally there was good contrast to travel to field sites from the base at Ny-Alesund. The photos may be misleading as these were taken on the nicer weather days!
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