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  • Perspective
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Microplastics and nanoplastics in the marine-atmosphere environment

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 3, pages 393–405 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The discovery of atmospheric micro(nano)plastic transport and ocean–atmosphere exchange points to a highly complex marine plastic cycle, with negative implications for human and ecosystem health. Yet, observations are currently limited. In this Perspective, we quantify the processes and fluxes of the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle, with the aim of highlighting the remaining unknowns in atmospheric micro(nano)plastic transport. Between 0.013 and 25 million metric tons per year of micro(nano)plastics are potentially being transported within the marine atmosphere and deposited in the oceans. However, the high uncertainty in these marine-atmospheric fluxes is related to data limitations and a lack of study intercomparability. To address the uncertainties and remaining knowledge gaps in the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle, we propose a future global marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic observation strategy, incorporating novel sampling methods and the creation of a comparable, harmonized and global data set. Together with long-term observations and intensive investigations, this strategy will help to define the trends in marine-atmospheric pollution and any responses to future policy and management actions.

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Fig. 1: Atmospheric microplastic transport, potential annual flux, burdens and current knowledge gaps.
Fig. 2: Summary of published micro(nano)plastics atmospheric and marine research.
Fig. 3: Critical known and unknown atmospheric processes.
Fig. 4: The proposed global observation network.

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Data availability

The data for Fig. 2 are supplied in the online Supplementary Data file.

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Acknowledgements

This paper resulted from deliberations at the virtual workshop The Atmospheric Input of Chemicals to the Ocean, organized by the Joint Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP; www.gesamp.org) Working Group 38 (led and supported by the World Meteorological Organization, https://public.wmo.int/en), and GESAMP Working Group 40 (co-led and supported by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, https://ioc.unesco.org, and the United Nations Environment Programme, http://www.unep.org). The authors thank the Global Atmosphere Watch and the World Weather Research Programme of the World Meteorological Organization for their workshop support, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is grateful for the support provided to its Marine Environment Laboratories by the Government of the Principality of Monaco. D.A. was supported by the Leverhulme Trust through grant ECF-2019-306 and Carnegie Trust (RIG009318). S.A. was supported by IGI funding through the University of Birmingham and an OFI fellowship. L.E.R. was supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund (contract MFP-UOC1903). A.G.M. was supported by NERC through the Current and Future Effects of Microplastics on Marine Ecosystems (MINIMISE) grant (NE/S004831/1). W.J.S. was supported by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea (Land/sea-based input and fate of microplastics in the marine environment). S.W. is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), MRC Centre for Environment and Health (MR/R026521/1), and this work is in part funded by the MRC, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Imperial College London. D.M. acknowledges support from the Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)) project numbers OCENW.XS2.078 and OCENW.XS21.2.042. This work also contributes to the Pollution Observatory of the Helmholtz Association-funded programme FRAM (Frontiers in Arctic Marine Research). This publication is Eprint ID 54444 of the Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Deonie Allen, Steve Allen.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Deonie Allen

  2. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Steve Allen

  3. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

    Steve Allen

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, College of Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Sajjad Abbasi

  5. Department of Radiochemistry and Environmental Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin, Poland

    Sajjad Abbasi

  6. School of Environmental Sciences, Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Alex Baker, Tim Jickells & Peter Liss

  7. HGF-MPG Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Melanie Bergmann

  8. Department of Watershed Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Janice Brahney

  9. Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, Germany

    Tim Butler

  10. Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Robert A. Duce

  11. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Robert A. Duce

  12. Atmosphere and Climate Department, Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway

    Sabine Eckhardt & Nikolaos Evangeliou

  13. Department of Chemistry (ECPL), University of Crete, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

    Maria Kanakidou

  14. Independent Marine Environmental Consultant, Norfolk, UK

    Peter Kershaw

  15. University of Grenoble Alpes, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), Grenoble, France

    Paolo Laj

  16. Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Paolo Laj

  17. Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Environment and Health, Environmental Research Group, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Joseph Levermore & Stephanie Wright

  18. State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

    Daoji Li & Kai Liu

  19. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Natalie Mahowald

  20. School of Science, Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia

    Pere Masque

  21. Department of Physics, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

    Pere Masque

  22. International Atomic Energy Agency, Marine Environment Laboratories, Monaco, Principality of Monaco

    Pere Masque, Paul McGinnity, Iolanda Osvath & Sylvia G. Sander

  23. Utrecht University, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht (IMAU), Utrecht, Netherlands

    Dušan Materić

  24. School of Chemistry, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Andrew G. Mayes

  25. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Kimberly A. Prather

  26. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Kimberly A. Prather & Jonathan Slade

  27. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, MI, USA

    Joseph M. Prospero

  28. School of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Laura E. Revell

  29. GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Sylvia G. Sander

  30. Risk Assessment Research Centre, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Geoje, Republic of Korea

    Won Joon Shim

  31. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Air Research Laboratory (ARL), College Park, MD, USA

    Ariel Stein

  32. Atmospheric Environment Research Division, Science and Innovation Department, World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

    Oksana Tarasova

  33. National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (NIHR HPRU) in Environmental Exposures and Health, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Stephanie Wright

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Contributions

D.A. and S.A. are the lead authors; they undertook the data research, provided substantial contribution to the discussion of content, and undertook the writing and editing of this article. R.A.D. and J.M.P. substantially contributed to the discussion of the content and writing of this article, T.J. and P. Liss substantially contributed to the discussion of the content, and M.B., P. Laj and L.E.R. substantially contributed to the writing. M.K., S.E. and N.E. performed data research, and all authors contributed to the review and editing of this article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deonie Allen.

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Nature Reviews Earth & Environment thanks J. B. Stuut, A. Horton, T. Walker, and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Allen, D., Allen, S., Abbasi, S. et al. Microplastics and nanoplastics in the marine-atmosphere environment. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 393–405 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00292-x

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