http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-30/how-so-much-plastic-got-into-the-frozen-arctic-sea

How So Much Plastic Got Into the Frozen Arctic Sea

By Caroline Winter May 30, 2014

The Arctic Ocean is considered one of the world?s ?last pristine
ecosystems.? That?s why Rachel Obbard, a Dartmouth University professor
who studies polar ice and materials science, was shocked to find that
Arctic sea ice contains large quantities of plastic and synthetic
particles. ?I used to think of Arctic sea ice as unaffected by man-made
pollutants,? she says. ?It?s not the case.?

In a study published in the open-access journal Earth?s Future, Obbard
and her colleagues write that more than a trillion bits of plastic may
be released into the ocean over the next 10 years as global warming
speeds the melting of Arctic ice. Obbard stumbled upon the microplastics
while examining four enormous samples of so-called ?sea ice,? which
generally forms during the winter and largely melts away during the
summer. Most sea ice has been frozen from two to five years and measures
roughly one to five meters from surface to sea level. The samples, each
about 1 meter thick (3.2 feet), had been collected from locations
roughly 1,000 kilometers apart during Arctic expeditions in 2005 and 2010.