Fibers spreading worldwide: Microplastics and other anthropogenic litter in an Arctic freshwater lake

González-Pleiter, Miguel; Velázquez, David; Edo, Carlos; Carretero, Olga; Gago, Jesús; Barón‐Solá, Ángel; Hernández, Luís E.; Yousef, Ibraheem; Quesada, Antonio; Leganés, Francisco; Rosal, Roberto; Fernández-Piñas, Francisca

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137904

Cited by 130 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The sources of microplastics and fibres are unknown, but the number of human activities in the area related to hiking, pasturing, and diving activities could contribute to the microplastic and fibre contamination. On the other hand, it is also possible that these microparticles enter the lake due to wind transport processes [52,53]. Allen et al (2019) reported microplastic deposition (wet and dry) in a remote mountain location, in which fragments were the most abundant shape of microplastics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They suspected that the source of microplastics could be at least regional (>100 km). For their part, Gonzáles-Pleiter et al (2020) found fibres in a remote polar fresh water lake and suspected that atmospheric deposition from local and distant sources was the origin of the microfibres [53]. Other studies have proven or modelled the transport of microplastics by winds [54,55] and indicate that the concentration of microplastics could vary from one season to another, depending on the regional human activity and the atmospheric conditions in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Velasco

Rard²,

Blois³

et al. 2020

Water

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The contamination of aquatic environments by microplastics has been largely documented in the last years, especially in oceans, rivers, and lakes, but their occurrence in remote mountain lakes has been scarcely considered. This work aims to investigate the presence and abundance of microplastics and fibres in a remote, alpine, and uninhabited lake in Switzerland (Sassolo). In this study, the water column as well as the sediments were analysed. The isolation of microplastics and fibres from the samples of the sediment was achieved with a digestion process using H2O2 and a density separation technique with NaI. Classification of microparticles (from 5 mm to 125 μm) was first developed with an optical microscope. Infrared spectroscopy was then used to identify and characterize the chemical nature of the microplastics and fibres. On average, 2.6 microplastics and 4.4 fibres per litre were identified in the water column. On the other hand, the results of the sediment samples revealed significant fibre concentrations compared to plastic microparticles (514 fibres and 33 microplastics per kilogram). The most abundant types of microplastic identified in the samples were composed of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP). Microplastic and fibre sources were not determined, but it is likely that the number of human activities in this area as well as aerial deposition are contributing to contaminate this remote environment with microplastics and fibres.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Velasco

Rard²,

Blois³

et al. 2020

Water

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“…由此 MPs 的污染问题在全球开始受到广泛关注, MPs 也因此成为了新兴有机污染物 [12] . 随着研究的广泛开展, 人类意识到 MPs 已无处不在 [13][14][15] , 与人类活动相关联的海洋、地表水、废水、土壤、沉积物、空气和食物中都检测到了 MPs [16,17] , 瓶装水 [18,19] 、生物体内(据统计, 已在 323 种海洋鱼类 [20] 、80 种海鸟 [21] 、6 种海龟 [22] )也有检出, 甚至在人类粪便中 [23,24] 也检测到了 MPs, 而在远离人类活动范围的偏远地区, 比如, 南极洲 [25,26] 、北极 [27,28] 或深海 [29] 中也发现了它们, 20%的南极企鹅体内有 MPs 存在 [30] .…”

Section: 微塑料赋存现状及其来源简介unclassified

Research progress on environmental occurrence of microplastics and their interaction mechanism with organic pollutants

Liu¹,

Sun²,

Liu³

et al. 2021

Sci. Sin.-Chim

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：Microplastics are ubiquitous in various environmental media on a global scale, and can adsorb co-existing pollutants, especially organic pollutants, thus changing the environmental behavior and toxicity of pollutants; they can also promote the migration of pollutants in different media through adsorption/desorption. Influencing factors and mechanisms of adsorption between microplastics and organic pollutants are necessary information for a comprehensive assessment of the environmental risks of microplastics and organic pollutants. Due to the complexity of composition, structure and surface characteristics of microplastics and the diversity of co-existing organic pollutants, the interaction between them is very complex. Based on a review of the relevant literatures in recent years, the authors systematically summarized the current status of occurrence and migration of microplastic in environmental media, the influencing factors of microplastic adsorption of organic pollutants and their interaction mechanisms, with a view to providing useful references for the in-depth understanding of the environmental behavior and ecological risks of microplastics.

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“…1 They are widespread in the environment, both in densely populated and remote areas. 2-5 Much remains unknown about their impact on organisms; while negative effects have been observed in several studies, a clear, causal picture has not yet emerged. 6 This is in part due to the diversity of microplastics, i.e., shape, size, polymer identity, chemical mixture, color, and count, which are not accounted for in most studies on their ecological effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Prediction of Microplastic Counts from Mass Measurements

Tan

Taylor

2021

Preprint

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Microplastics must be characterized and quantified to assess their impact. Current quantification procedures are time-consuming and rely on expensive equipment. This study evaluates the use of machine learning to estimate the number of microplastic particles based on aggregate particle weight measurements. Synthetic datasets are used to test the performance of linear regression, kernel ridge regression and decision trees. Kernel ridge regression achieves the strongest performance, and it is also tested with experimental datasets. The numerical results show that the algorithm is better at predicting the counts of larger and more homogenous samples, and that contamination by organics does not significantly increase error. In mixed samples, prediction error is lower for heavier particles, with an error rate comparable to or better than that of manual counting. Overall, the proposed method is faster, cheaper and easier than current approaches.SynopsisUsing generated and real datasets, this study demonstrates that Kernel Ridge Regression can estimate microplastic counts from weight measurements as accurately as traditional visual sorting techniques.

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Fibers spreading worldwide: Microplastics and other anthropogenic litter in an Arctic freshwater lake

Cited by 130 publications

References 52 publications

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Microplastic and Fibre Contamination in a Remote Mountain Lake in Switzerland

Research progress on environmental occurrence of microplastics and their interaction mechanism with organic pollutants

Efficient Prediction of Microplastic Counts from Mass Measurements

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