Tiny particles of plastic found in the air may be warming our planet, according to a new study released this week. 

Airborne micro- and nanoplastics may contribute to global warming at a level equivalent to 16.2% of that caused by black carbon, or soot, with higher values seen over oceanic garbage patches, according to findings published in Nature Climate Change. 

"With the growing awareness of microplastic particles in the atmosphere there has been interest in thinking about whether they have any potential impact on climate change," said Gregory Carmichael, Karl Kammermeyer Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and director of the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa.

Carmichael, one of the paper's authors, conducted foundational work on black carbon and its role as an atmospheric warming agent. 

Researchers found that colored microplastics - like black carbon - are strongly absorbing, which is a critical quality for particles to heat the atmosphere.

"They are important enough to be taken seriously and to further quantify their role," Carmichael said, while adding there are insufficient observations of microplastics in the atmosphere to quantify their concentrations and how they are distributed globally. 

Hongbo Fu, professor of environmental science at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, is the paper's lead author. Carmichael and Fu collaborated when Fu was a visiting professor of chemistry at Iowa experimenting with chemical reactions on atmospheric particles, including black carbon.

The paper, "Atmospheric warming contributions from airborne microplastics and nanoplastics," is available at Nature Climate Change. 

The findings have also gained broad interest from the national press. 

USA Today: Microplastics in the sky? Tiny troublemakers may be warming Earth.
Scientific American: Airborne microplastics could be making climate change worse
Bloomberg: Microplastics in the Air Are Making Earth Hotter, Study Finds