Anthropogenic particles in European Arctic marine environments: impacts from the world's northernmost settlement at 78° N

Microplastics ( This study investigates water samples collected in the inner part of Is- fjorden and Adventfjorden, located in western Svalbard, which is influenced by inflowing water masses from the Fram Strait in addition to local runoff from rivers and surrounding glaciers. The world’s northernmost settlement, Longyearbyen, is also located here and has a non-treated wastewater outflow to Adventfjorden. The samples were collected on both sides of the opening of Adventfjorden. Two in the inflowing current and two in the outflow- ing current of the fjord. Replicate water samples were collected with a CTD cast equipped with Niskin bottles in June 2021. An already established oleo-extraction was applied to extract anthropogenic particles (> 50 μm) from the samples. The subsequent quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted via Micro-FTIR. Results from the examination of the microplastics will be presented together with previous modelling experiments of fibre transport pathways from the wastewater outlet from Longyearbyen.