Microplastics: we’ve found startling quantities in the ice algae that are essential for all Arctic marine life

The contamination of the ice algae could have major consequences for ecosystems and the climate.

Last summer, we travelled to the remote Arctic Hausgarten observatory area in the eastern Fram Strait (west of Svalbard, Norway) on a research ship. The samples we collected there included ice cores, sea water and ice algae from large packs of floating ice called ice floes. These form 1–2 metre thick “plates” of sea ice across the Arctic Ocean, some of which melt over the summer period.