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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-4321</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Airborne and marine microplastics in the Northern Indian Ocean: decoupled pathways traced by black carbon</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Markuszewski</surname>
<given-names>Piotr</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1160-6318</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mazurkiewicz</surname>
<given-names>Mikołaj</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5253-1020</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Stawiarz</surname>
<given-names>Kinga</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Śmiszek</surname>
<given-names>Małgorzata</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowska</surname>
<given-names>Patrycja</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ferrero</surname>
<given-names>Luca</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0777-2647</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Budhavant</surname>
<given-names>Krishnakant</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2753-3192</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zawadzki</surname>
<given-names>Mateusz</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Waleczek</surname>
<given-names>Anna</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Makuch</surname>
<given-names>Przemysław</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9132-1990</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Nilsson</surname>
<given-names>Douglas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3996-5793</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gustafsson</surname>
<given-names>Örjan</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1922-0527</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Haslett</surname>
<given-names>Sophie L.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2985-4846</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 81-712, Sopot, Poland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>GEMMA and POLARIS Centre, Università degli Studi di Milano‐Bicocca, Milano, Italy</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physics of Electronic Phenomena, Institute of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology, ul. G. Narutowicza 11/12, 80-233 Gdańsk, Poland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Department of Environmental Technology, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Gdańsk, 80-308 Gdańsk, Poland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Maldives Climate Observatory-Hanimaadhoo (MCOH), Maldives Meteorological Services, H. Dh. Hanimaadhoo 02020, Maldives</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Divecha Centre for Climate Change, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>Faculty of Oceanography and Geography, University of Gdańsk, al. J. Piłsudskiego 46, Gdynia, 81–378, Poland</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>08</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>46</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Piotr Markuszewski et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4321/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4321/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4321/egusphere-2026-4321.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4321/egusphere-2026-4321.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Microplastics (MPs) are increasingly detected in marine and atmospheric particulate matter, but their sources, transport, and air&amp;ndash;sea exchange remain poorly constrained in remote marine regions. We investigated airborne microplastics (AMPs) and marine microplastics (MMPs) during a 1-month campaign at the Maldives Climate Observatory Hanimaadhoo and in adjacent coastal waters. Airborne particles were collected with a deposition box, and seawater was sampled at coastal sites. Particle morphology, size, and polymer composition were determined by optical microscopy and &amp;micro;-Raman spectroscopy and evaluated alongside aerosol scattering and equivalent black carbon (eBC). AMP concentrations ranged from 0 to 10.3 MP m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt; (mean: 3.1 &amp;plusmn; 2.8 MP m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;). MMP concentrations ranged from 120 to 2656 MP m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt; (mean: 876 &amp;plusmn; 804 MP m&lt;sup&gt;-3&lt;/sup&gt;), exceeding typical open-ocean values and indicating substantial local influence from inhabited islands and maritime activity. Significant differences in size distributions and pronounced compositional differences of AMPs and MMPs suggest weak coupling between the atmospheric and marine reservoirs. Low dry-season wind speeds probably suppressed wave breaking, bubble bursting, and sea-spray-mediated transfer from ocean to atmosphere. Instead, AMP variability coincided with polluted air-mass advection, elevated eBC, and enhanced aerosol scattering, indicating stronger control by regional atmospheric transport than by local marine emissions. These results show that remote island atmospheres are exposed to anthropogenic plastic aerosol transport and demonstrate the value of combining MP observations with established aerosol tracers to resolve plastic-particle pathways in marine environments.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="46"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Narodowym Centrum Nauki</funding-source>
<award-id>2023/49/B/ST10/00513</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Vetenskapsrådet</funding-source>
<award-id>2021-05225</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
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</article>