Chasing atmospheric plastic

Abstract

In 2017, biogeochemist Janice Brahney was collecting dust deposited in remote wilderness areas in the western US. She wanted to study how phosphorus that was transported through the air to these wild places might disrupt their ecosystems. But Brahney’s samples contained more than the soil particles she was expecting. Under the microscope were “enormous amounts of plastic,” the Utah State University researcher says. There were fibers, spheres, and chunks of the stuff, in all different colors. Plastic is ubiquitous wherever people go, but Brahney’s study areas—including remote parts of the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah and Rocky Mountain National Park—don’t get a lot of human traffic. She was determined to figure out how microplastics could have gotten there. She didn’t have funding to work on the problem, so she investigated this mystery in her spare time, spending years of evenings and weekends cataloging the plastic bits. Her detailed investigation led