Macroplastic Storage and Remobilization in Rivers

Liro, Maciej; Emmerik, Tim van; Wyżga‬‬, Bartłomiej; Liro, Justyna; Mikuś, Paweł

doi:10.20944/preprints202007.0169.v2

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…From here, litter can be (temporarily) deposited on the riverbed, within the sediment, on riverbanks, in vegetation along and within the river, and sometimes even within the riverine biota, 8 leading to a large variation in retention times. 9 − 13 The natural transportation toward and through the river system is traditionally attributed to three hydrometeorological processes: transport by precipitation-driven surface runoff, wind, and river flow dynamics (as well as tidal dynamics). These processes are assumed to be key factors in explaining both spatial and temporal variability in riverine litter abundance 14 − 16 although true quantification is still missing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling Variability in Riverbank Macrolitter Observations

Roebroek

Hut

Vriend

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Anthropogenic macrolitter (>0.5 cm) in rivers is of increasing concern. It has been found to have an adverse effect on riverine ecosystem health, and the livelihoods of the communities depending on and living next to these ecosystems. Yet, little is known on how macrolitter reaches and propagates through these ecosystems. A better understanding of macrolitter transport dynamics is key in developing effective reduction, preventive, and cleanup measures. In this study, we analyzed a novel dataset of citizen science riverbank macrolitter observations in the Dutch Rhine–Meuse delta, spanning two years of observations on over 200 unique locations, with the litter categorized into 111 item categories according to the river-OSPAR protocol. With the use of regression models, we analyzed how much of the variation in the observations can be explained by hydrometeorology, observer bias, and location, and how much can instead be explained by temporal trends and seasonality. The results show that observation bias is very low, with only a few exceptions, in contrast with the total variance in the observations. Additionally, the models show that precipitation, wind speed, and river flow are all important explanatory variables in litter abundance variability. However, the total number of items that can significantly be explained by the regression models is 19% and only six item categories display an R 2 above 0.4. This suggests that a very substantial part of the variability in macrolitter abundance is a product of chance, caused by unaccounted (and often fundamentally unknowable) stochastic processes, rather than being driven by the deterministic processes studied in our analyses. The implications of these findings are that for modeling macrolitter movement through rivers effectively, a probabilistic approach and a strong uncertainty analysis are fundamental. In turn, point observations of macrolitter need to be planned to capture short-term variability.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disentangling Variability in Riverbank Macrolitter Observations

Roebroek

Hut

Vriend

et al. 2021

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…[4][5][6]8 Regardless of the importance of rivers for plastic pollution, only lately the focus of plastic research shifted toward the sources and, in particular, the role of rivers in transporting and retaining macroplastics. 9 Existing modeling approaches for oceans simplified the description of freshwater as an input source toward oceans, neglecting the complexity and potential of high macroplastic retention in rivers and lakes. 10−13 So far, macroplastic transport in rivers has mostly been investigated through point measurements, which provide little information about fate processes or sources of macroplastics.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macroplastic Fate and Transport Modeling: Freshwaters Act as Main Reservoirs

Mennekes,

Mellink,

Schreyers

et al. 2024

ACS EST Water

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Macroplastic fate and transport in the freshwater environment are of great concern due to the potentially harmful effects of macroplastic on plants, animals, and humans. Here, we present a modeling approach to simulate macroplastic fate and transport at the country scale based on an existing plastic release model. The fate model was parametrized through available monitoring data and results from field experiments and applied to Swiss rivers and lakes. We found that almost all (98%) macroplastic emissions into freshwater remain within Switzerland. After exploring the influences of weirs, retention in rivers, and retention in lakes through a sensitivity analysis, we found a high retention variability across different catchments and within rivers. In all 22 analyzed scenarios for continuous retention along each river bank (i.e., beaching), we found that at least 70% of input emissions into the water bodies would be retained long-term in the catchments (about 200 g per river km and year). Across all catchments, we found a dominance of "continuous retention" through beaching along the entire river length compared with "point retention" at weirs or lakes. Thus, by modeling macroplastic fate and transport on a country level for the first time, we were able to confirm the concept of "rivers as plastic reservoirs" through modeling.

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Floating Riverine Litter Flux to the White Sea: Seasonal Changes in Abundance and Composition

Mikusheva

Pogojeva

Котова

et al. 2023

JMSE

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Arctic rivers bring litter from their basins to the sea, but accurate data for the Arctic do not exist yet. This study presents the first assessment of floating macro litter input (>2.5 cm) from the Northern Dvina and Onega rivers to the White Sea. The observations were performed based on the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) methodology and using the mobile application of the Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy). The results of observations from May 2021 to November 2021 show that 77% of floating objects were of natural origin (mainly leaves, wood and bird feathers). Of the particles of anthropogenic origin, 59.6% were represented by various types of plastics, 27.7% were processed wood, 8.5% paper/cardboard, 2.7% metal, 1.1% were rubber and <1% textiles. The average monthly input of anthropogenic macro litter by the Northern Dvina varies from 250 to 1700 items/hour, and by Onega from 520 to 2350 items/hour. The level of pollution of the studied rivers was found to be higher than in some Europeans rivers but lower than in China. The mass discharge of macroplastics in the Northern Dvina River was compared with the estimates of the discharge of meso- and microplastics; that allowed us to show that the discharge of macroplastics in mass units is much higher than of micro- and mesoplastics.

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Macroplastic Storage and Remobilization in Rivers

Cited by 7 publications

References 56 publications

Disentangling Variability in Riverbank Macrolitter Observations

Disentangling Variability in Riverbank Macrolitter Observations

Macroplastic Fate and Transport Modeling: Freshwaters Act as Main Reservoirs

Floating Riverine Litter Flux to the White Sea: Seasonal Changes in Abundance and Composition

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