{"id":2476,"date":"2021-04-23T13:35:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T11:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planetcare.org\/?p=2476"},"modified":"2021-10-17T19:36:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-17T17:36:38","slug":"microfiber-pollution-places-where-microfibers-have-been-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planetcare.org\/de\/microfiber-pollution-places-where-microfibers-have-been-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollution Map: Discover the Many Places Where Scientists Found Microfibers"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the first to investigate microfiber pollution was Mark Browne. A Sydney-based ecologist has been \u201ctediously examining\u201d sediments along Earth\u2019s shorelines and came across something unexpected. Tiny plastic strings, almost invisible to the naked eye, were everywhere, Guardian reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Browne and his team published a study<\/a> on the findings. It claimed that the dominant source of ocean plastics has been in fact microfibers - synthetic particles of textile that our clothes shed during washing. (Learn more about microfiber pollution here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Microfiber pollution from deep-sea to the Himalayas<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since Browne\u2019s ground-breaking study, the body of research on microfibers snowballed. Scientists have been finding them everywhere, even in the deepest parts of the world. One British research team, for example, used traps with bait to capture creatures from the Mariana trench \u2013 the deepest trench of them all. When they looked inside the animals, they found a rainbow of microfibers, as explained in this National Geographic article<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if they go deep-sea, why shouldn\u2019t they go mountain high? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016, a team of Vertical Nepal in collaboration with Adventure Scientists<\/a> gathered freshwater samples in Langju Himal glacier, 6.5 kilometres high in the heart of the Himalayas. The Nepalese government recently opened up the sacred region to climbing and it\u2019s believed that no person ever set foot on the glacier. The restrictions apparently didn\u2019t apply to microfibers \u2013 researchers found one blue-coloured fibre in the foot of the mountain. How did it get there? Nobody knows for sure, but the wind could have brought it there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scientific research into microfiber pollution in one place<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

What else these pesky plastic bits now call their new home? For some extra clarity, we decided to put them on a map. It\u2019s far from exhaustive and we\u2019ll be adding new research as we go. (Click on the icon to learn more about the research)<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n