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Spatiotemporal variability of microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton headwater lakes, Ontario, Canada

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Abstract

Microplastics (mp) are a growing environmental concern due to their ubiquity in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Nonetheless, there is limited knowledge on their abundance in lakes in rural areas. In this study, we surveyed 14 headwater lakes in Muskoka-Haliburton, Ontario, to assess the spatial and temporal variability of microplastics. The average microplastic concentration across the study lakes was 1.78 mp/L during May–June 2019, with limited spatial variability (coefficient of variation = 22%). Further, microplastic abundance was weakly correlated with lake area (rs: 0.469), the number of shoreline residences (rs: 0.399), and watershed area (rs: 0.350), suggesting that diffusive inputs, such as atmospheric deposition, were the dominant source of microplastics to the study lakes. In contrast, microplastics showed a distinct temporal (seasonal) variability, as the average concentration in August 2019 (0.91 mp/L) was significantly lower (p < 0.05) compared with May and June 2019. While microplastic abundance was generally higher in the metalimnion (0.70 mp/L) and epilimnion (0.67 mp/L), there was no significant difference by stratified layer. The annual percent removal of microplastics in lake sediment was estimated to be 14%, suggesting that for most of the study lakes, sediment burial was not a dominant sink for microplastics. Effective management of microplastic pollution requires an understanding of the nexus between microplastics in the atmosphere, lake water, and sediment. In rural areas, microplastic abundance appears to be dominated by atmospheric inputs, suggesting limited need for spatial monitoring. Temporal monitoring, however, is required to understand seasonal changes and long-term trends in microplastic abundance and delivery.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank members of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, especially Ron Ingram, and summer co-op students at the Dorset Environmental Science Centre, for routinely collecting lakes samples for analysis as well as Tim Field for providing additional background information on the study sites. The authors would also like to thank Debbie Lietz (Trent University Biology Department) for facilitating access to the stereomicroscope in the Imaging Suite and Jill Crossman (University of Windsor) for facilitating access to micro-Raman spectroscopy in the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research.

Funding

This research was carried out with the support from ECO Canada Co-op Student Work Placement program and an NSERC CGS-M scholarship to Brittany Welsh.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, K9L 0G2, Canada

    Brittany Welsh & Julian Aherne

  2. Inland Waters Unit, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Dorset, ON, P0A 1E0, Canada

    Andrew M. Paterson, Huaxia Yao & Chris McConnell

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  1. Brittany Welsh
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Contributions

BW: study design, particle extractions and identification, microscopy, interpretation of data, writing—original draft. JA: study design, interpretation of data, writing—original draft. AMP: Study design, interpretation of data, writing—review and editing. HY: supported field sampling, provided background information on study sites, writing—review and editing. CM: supported field sampling, provided background information on study sites, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Brittany Welsh.

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This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “The Soil-Water-Atmosphere Nexus, guest edited by Daniel Karthe, Lulu Zhang, Sabrina Kirschke, Nora Adam, Serena Caucci, Edeltraud Günther.

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Welsh, B., Aherne, J., Paterson, A.M. et al. Spatiotemporal variability of microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton headwater lakes, Ontario, Canada. Environ Earth Sci 81, 551 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-022-10670-9

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