Dear colleagues,
My question is regarding suggested methodologies for snow sampling in, for example, mountains or peeks. Some ice sampling techniques for these environments would also be appreciated. Must consider these samples are going to be processed to identify microplastics in the snowy mountain ecosystems.
Thanks in advance,
Hi Gabriel! Not sure what scale you're hoping to work on -- here are some links to various snow and ice core methods:
https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/factpub/ah169/SnowSurveySamplingGuideHandout.pdf
https://swpcemp.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Snow-Sampling-Procedure-and-Summary.pdf
http://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/rcc/snowsurvey/SnowSurvMethod2018.pdf
https://icecores.org/about-ice-cores
Most of the snow sampling methods are for estimating the amount of water in snowpack (in dry states in the US, these methods are used to project drinking water supply/shortage). If you use the SWE methods alongside your microplastic analyses, it will give you a rudimentary method of estimating the mass loads of microplastics in the snowpack of the region you're sampling. The NSF ice cores are probably overkill for what you want to do, but I still thought the info might be interesting to you.
Good luck!
