Original data for article: Microplastics accumulate to thin layers in the stratified Baltic Sea

Description of the data and files:

The data was created in 2019-2020 and opened in 2021.

The dataset consists of two Excel files:

BalticSeaMIF_sampling.xlsx contains information about sampling, including coordinates of the sampling sites, depths and volumes of the samples, and as background information CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) measurements from each sampling site.

BalticSeaMIF_rawdata.xlsx contains raw data from the FPA-FTIR measurements. Raw data includes numbers, mass estimations, polymer types, and sizes of microplastics. Additionally, calculations for the background corrected numbers and mass estimations of microplastics per sample are provided.

Creation and processing of the data:

Data is created by measuring pre-treated and filtered water samples with FPA-FTIR and analysing the spectral data with siMPle (Primpke et al. 2020, Applied Spectroscopy, 74, 1127-1138, https://doi.org/10.1177/0003702820917760).

Please see the related article for more details about the methods and results.

Purpose and use of the data:

Data is published under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license.

Data may be useful for comparisons between datasets and meta-analyses of microplastic concentrations in various environments.