Occurrence of microplastics including tire wear particles in northern Atlantic air in 2021 - a first mass-quantitative data set

This data set provides mass quantitative data of microplastics (MP) including tire wear particles (TWP) in northern Atlantic air. Air samples were taken with two different active air sampling devices (low- and high-volume samplers) during seven transects on a research cruise along the Norwegian coast up to Bear Island. Identification and quantification of MP was performed with pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). More information about the measurement technique is found in the related paper (Goßmann et al., 2023; doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39340-5). MP was detected in all transects (max. 37.5 ng m-3). Particularly interesting was the ubiquity of the polyethylene terephthalate cluster (C-PET, max. 1.5 ng m-3). TWP was detected only twice, but in comparably high concentrations (max. 35 ng m-3). A close relationship of C-PET occurrence and possible re-emission processes from the ocean were suspected. The results for some polymer clusters had to be excluded due to sampling related interferences. The respective background is discussed in the related publication. The indicator used for identification and quantification of the polyvinyl chloride cluster (C-PVC) is rather unspecific. Therefore, C-PVC might be interfered by additional anthropogenic sources and the given C-PVC concentration only represents an order of magnitude.本数据集提供北大西洋北部空气中微塑料（microplastics, MP）的质量定量数据，其中包含轮胎磨损颗粒（tire wear particles, TWP）。研究团队沿挪威海岸至熊岛开展科考巡航，期间在7条采样断面上使用两款不同的主动空气采样装置（低流量与高流量采样器）采集空气样本。采用热解气相色谱-质谱联用法（pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, Py-GC/MS）完成了微塑料的定性与定量分析。有关测量技术的更多细节可参阅相关研究论文（Goßmann等，2023；doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39340-5）。所有采样断面均检出微塑料，最高质量浓度达37.5 ng·m⁻³。其中，聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯簇（polyethylene terephthalate cluster, C-PET）的普遍检出尤为引人关注，其最高质量浓度为1.5 ng·m⁻³。轮胎磨损颗粒仅在两次采样中被检出，但质量浓度相对较高，最高达35 ng·m⁻³。研究推测，聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯簇的检出与海洋可能的再释放过程存在密切关联。部分聚合物簇的检测结果因采样相关干扰被排除，相关背景信息已在该研究出版物中予以讨论。用于聚氯乙烯簇（polyvinyl chloride cluster, C-PVC）定性与定量的指示物特异性较差，因此聚氯乙烯簇的检测结果可能受到其他人为源的干扰，所给出的聚氯乙烯簇浓度仅代表其数量级范围。