Abstract
Microplastics, particles less than 5 mm in size, are an emerging contaminant in waterways worldwide. Most microplastic studies focus on spatial trends in concentration, but in systems as dynamic as rivers, to draw conclusions from existing spatial studies, we must first examine how microplastic concentrations may change with time and flow conditions. In this study, we investigate how microplastic concentrations change over a 24-h period and between seasonally high and low flows. We do this in two streams, controlling for wastewater treatment strategy: one stream in a watershed where waste is treated with septic systems and the other receiving wastewater treatment plant effluent. We hypothesized that a stream with wastewater treatment plant effluent would exhibit higher and more variable microplastic concentrations than a stream in a watershed with septic systems. Results indicate, however, that there is no significant difference between the two streams despite their differing treatment strategies. Additionally, no significant variation in concentrations was measured over two 24-h sampling campaigns. There was, however, significantly higher concentrations measured in summer low flow conditions relative to spring high flow conditions across both sampled streams (p value <0.001), indicating that increases in stream discharge unrelated to storm events dilute and decrease measured microplastic concentrations. From this, we learn that pairing measured concentrations with a description of flow conditions at sampling time is a requisite for a robust microplastic literature that allows for comparisons between existing spatial studies and extrapolations to global loads.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Erika Mudrak for her consultation on the statistical analyses for this study, as well as to the dozens of volunteers who helped with the field collection and laboratory processing of samples for this study.
Funding
Lisa Watkins was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. (2017228528) and graduate student research grants from Cornell University. This work made use of the Cornell Center for Materials Research Shared Facilities which are supported through the NSF MRSEC program (DMR-1719875). This study was prepared for the New York State Water Resources Institute (WRI) and the Hudson River Estuary program of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, with support from the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.
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Watkins, L., Sullivan, P.J. & Walter, M.T. A case study investigating temporal factors that influence microplastic concentration in streams under different treatment regimes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 21797–21807 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04663-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04663-8