Fig. 1: AMP collected in the atmosphere of the first North Atlantic transect of the Tara Pacific Expedition during May–June 2016.
From: Airborne microplastic particles detected in the remote marine atmosphere
a The presence of AMP and MP along the Atlantic transect. The different colors of the transect presented on the map represent the segments that the R/V Tara crossed during each airborne filter collection. Forty-six airborne samples (filters) were collected in total, with typical sampling durations of 12–24 h. Each airborne sample number where AMP was detected along the transect (2, 5, 10, 11, 17, 23, 30, 38, and 39) is presented on the map, along with the corresponding sampling location (circled in blue), and the detected AMP type (abbreviated; full names of the plastic compounds are provided in Table 1). The colored full circles along the transect represent seawater microplastic particle (MP) log abundance per m3. Note that the seawater concentrations vary by 4 orders of magnitude. b Raman spectra of the AMP types collected during the transect. The obtained Raman spectrum (arbitrary intensity vs. Raman shift in wavenumber) of each airborne AMP and its light microscope image are presented. The AMP sample number as appears on the map is written next to each Raman spectrum. The Raman spectra of the plastic polymer standards, corresponding to the sampled AMP types are presented in magenta above the samples’ spectra.
