Plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems: macro-, meso-, and microplastic debris in a floodplain lake

BLETTLER, MARTIN C. M.; ULLA, MARIA ALICIA; RABUFFETTI, ANA PIA; GARELLO, NICOLÁS

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2017 vol. 189

0167-6369

Plastic pollution is considered an important environmental problem by the United Nations Environment Programme, and it is identified, alongside climate change,asanemergingissuethatmightaffectbiological diversity and human health. However, despite research efforts investigating plastics in oceans, relatively little studies have focused on freshwater systems. The aim of this study was to estimate the spatial distribution, types, and characteristics of macro-, meso-, and microplastic fragments in shoreline sediments of a freshwater lake. Food wrappers (mainly polypropylene and polystyrene), bags (high- and low-density polyethylene), bottles (polyethylene terephthalate), and disposable Styrofoam food containers (expanded polystyrene) were the dominantmacroplasticsrecordedinthisstudy.Contrary tootherstudies,hereinmacroplasticitemsurveyswould not serve as surrogates for microplastic items. This is disadvantageoussincemacroplasticsurveysarerelatively easier to conduct. Otherwise, an average of 25 mesoplastics (mainly expanded polystyrene) and 704 microplastic particles (diverse resins) were recorded per square meter insandy sediments. Comparisonswith other studies from freshwater and marine beachesindicated similar relevance of plastic contamination, demonstrating for the first time that plastic pollution is a serious problem in the Paraná floodplain lakes. This study is also valuable from a social/educational point of view, since plastic waste has been ignored in the Paraná catchment as a pollutant problem, and therefore, the outcome of the current study is a relevant contribution for decision makers.