Global study details microplastics contamination in lakes and reservoirs


Date:
July 12, 2023
Source:
University of Kansas
Summary:
A project involving 79 researchers belonging to the international
Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) finds that
concentrations of plastic found in freshwater environments are
actually higher than those found in so-called 'garbage patches'
in the ocean.


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==========================================================================
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Around 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year. But
that is not the only water source where plastic represents a significant intrusion.

"We found microplastics in every lake we sampled," said Ted Harris,
associate research professor for the Kansas Biological Survey & Center
for Ecological Research at the University of Kansas.

"Some of these lakes you think of as clear, beautiful vacation spots. But
we discovered such places to be perfect examples of the link between
plastics and humans." Harris is one of 79 researchers belonging to
the international Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON),
which examines processes and phenomena occurring in freshwater
environments. Their new paper, titled "Plastic debris in lakes and
reservoirs," reveals that concentrations of plastic found in freshwater environments are actually higher than those found in so-called "garbage patches" in the ocean. The article is published in Nature.

For his role, Harris teamed with Rebecca Kessler, his former student
and recent KU graduate, to test two Kansas lakes (Clinton and Perry)
and the Cross Reservoir at the KU Field Station.

"That entailed us going out, tolling a net with tiny little holes in
it, dragging it for about two minutes, then collecting those samples
of microplastics and sending them off to (the lead researchers),"
Kessler said.

The research project was designed and coordinated by the Inland Water
Ecology and Management research group of the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy (headed by Barbara Leoni and Veronica Nava). The team sampled
surface waters of 38 lakes and reservoirs, distributed across gradients
of geographical position and limnological attributes. It detected plastic debris in all studied lakes and reservoirs.

"This paper essentially shows the more humans, the more plastics,"
Harris said.

"Places like Clinton Lake are relatively low in microplastics because --
while there are many animals and trees -- there aren't a lot of humans, relative to somewhere like Lake Tahoe where people are living all
around it. Some of these lakes are seemingly pristine and beautiful,
yet that's where the microplastics come from." Harris said that many
of the plastics are from something as outwardly innocuous as T-shirts.

"The simple act of people getting in swimming and having clothing that
has microplastic fibers in it leads to microplastics getting everywhere,"
he said.

The GLEON study cites two types of water bodies studied that are
particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination: lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized areas; and those with elevated deposition areas, long water retention times and high levels of anthropogenic
influence.

"When we started the study, I didn't know a lot about microplastics
versus large plastics," Harris said.

"When this paper says 'concentrations as much or worse than the garbage
patch,' you always think of the big bottles and stuff, but you're not
thinking of all that smaller stuff. You don't see a huge garbage patch
in Lake Tahoe, yet it's one of the most impacted lakes when it comes to microplastics. Those are plastics you can't really see with the naked eye,
and then you get underneath a scope at 40,000x, and you see these little
jagged pieces and other particles that are the same size as algae or even smaller." Part of Harris and Kessler's enthusiasm for taking part in this project was to highlight a region of the U.S. that is often overlooked.

"In this study, there's one dot in the middle of the country, and that's
our sample," he said. "In Iowa, Missouri and Colorado, there's this huge
swath of area that has water bodies, but we often don't get them into
those massive global studies. So it was really important for me to put
Kansas on the map to see and contextualize what these differences are
in our lakes." Harris has worked at KU since 2013, where his research
focuses on aquatic ecology. Kessler graduated KU in 2022 with a degree
in ecology, evolutionary & organismal biology.

"The biggest takeaway from our study is that microplastics can be
found in all lakes," Kessler said. "Obviously, there are different concentrations. But they are literally everywhere. And the biggest
contributing factor to these microplastics is human interaction with
the lakes."
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Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Kansas. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Veronica Nava, Sudeep Chandra, Julian Aherne, Mari'a B. Alfonso,
Ana M.

Anta~o-Geraldes, Katrin Attermeyer, Roberto Bao, Mireia Bartrons,
Stella A. Berger, Marcin Biernaczyk, Raphael Bissen, Justin
D. Brookes, David Brown, Miguel Can~edo-Argu"elles, Moise's Canle,
Camilla Capelli, Rafael Carballeira, Jose' Luis Cereijo, Sakonvan
Chawchai, So/ren T.

Christensen, Kirsten S. Christoffersen, Elvira de Eyto, Jorge
Delgado, Tyler N. Dornan, Jonathan P. Doubek, Julia Dusaucy, Oxana
Erina, Zeynep Ersoy, Heidrun Feuchtmayr, Maria Luce Frezzotti,
Silvia Galafassi, David Gateuille, Vitor Gonc,alves, Hans-Peter
Grossart, David P. Hamilton, Ted D. Harris, Ku"lli Kangur, Go"kben
Başaran Kankılıc,, Rebecca Kessler, Christine
Kiel, Edward M. Krynak, A`ngels Leiva-Presa, Fabio Lepori,
Miguel G. Matias, Shin-ichiro S. Matsuzaki, Yvonne McElarney,
Beata Messyasz, Mark Mitchell, Musa C. Mlambo, Samuel N.

Motitsoe, Sarma Nandini, Valentina Orlandi, Caroline Owens,
Deniz O"zkundakci, Solvig Pinnow, Agnieszka Pociecha, Pedro
Miguel Raposeiro, Eva-Ingrid Ro~o~m, Federica Rotta, Nico
Salmaso, S. S. S. Sarma, Davide Sartirana, Facundo Scordo,
Claver Sibomana, Daniel Siewert, Katarzyna Stepanowska, U"lku"
Nihan Tavşanoğlu, Maria Tereshina, James Thompson, Monica
Tolotti, Amanda Valois, Piet Verburg, Brittany Welsh, Brian Wesolek,
Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer, Naicheng Wu, Edyta Zawisza, Lauren Zink,
Barbara Leoni. Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs. Nature,
2023; 619 (7969): 317 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06168-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230712124616.htm

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