Microplastics in sediment cores data from the UK continental shelf and slope 2017

This dataset contains two CSV files. One CSV file reports locations and technical details for the cores, along with their slices, subsamples and the number of microplastic particles and fibres recorded in each 5g sample processed. Details of how the cores were sampled and processed can be found in the publication and its supporting information. The second CSV file contains x-y data for the micro-ATR-IR analysis of representative particles picked from some of the filters, to provide some numerical data on polymer types and fractions of Nile Red positive particles that could be positively identified as plastics (positives), those that were biological in origin (false positives) and those that could not be confidently identified. Details of the procedure for this appear below. Images of the particles along with their IR spectra can be found in the ESI accompanying the publication.