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Estimating plastic pollution in rivers through harmonized monitoring strategies
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This study characterized microplastic contamination in surface water and fish from rivers flowing through areas with varying land use, finding that agricultural and urban catchments consistently had higher microplastic concentrations than forested reference catchments. The results provide evidence that land use is a primary predictor of riverine microplastic contamination.
Plastics in rivers and lakes have direct local impact, and may also reach the world's oceans. Monitoring river plastic pollution is therefore key to quantify, understand and reduce plastics in all aquatic ecosystems. The lack of harmonization between ongoing monitoring efforts compromises the direct comparison and combination of available data. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched guidelines on freshwater plastic monitoring, to provide a starting point for practitioners and scientists towards harmonized data collection, analysis, and reporting. We developed a five-step workflow to support to design effective plastic monitoring strategies. The workflow was applied to three rivers (Rhine, Mekong and Odaw) across relevant gradients, including geography, hydrology, and plastic pollution levels. We show that despite the simplicity of the selected methods and the limited duration of the data collection, our harmonized approach provides crucial insights in the state of plastic pollution in very different river basins globally.
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Measuring riverine macroplastic: Methods, harmonisation, and quality control
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This critical review examined methods for measuring macroplastic flows in rivers, finding substantial variability in approaches and reporting that limits comparability across studies. The authors call for methods testing, harmonized quality assurance procedures, and standardized data reporting to support a rigorous evidence base for global plastic pollution reduction efforts including the forthcoming treaty.
Evaluation of riverine macro- and mesoplastic monitoring approaches.
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This review evaluated and compared existing monitoring approaches for riverine macro- and mesoplastics, identifying key methodological inconsistencies that limit cross-study comparisons and calling for standardization to improve understanding of plastic transport and accumulation in freshwater river systems.
Estimating plastic pollution levels in rivers through harmonized monitoring strategies
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Researchers proposed harmonized monitoring strategies for measuring plastic pollution in rivers, addressing the need for standardized methods to accurately track plastic accumulation in freshwater systems and its eventual transport to ocean environments.
Improving monitoring, analysis and reporting to assess plastic pollution: a matter of comparability
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This review examines two decades of microplastic monitoring in aquatic systems, identifying persistent challenges in harmonizing methodologies for sampling, analysis, and reporting that hinder data comparison, and proposing improvements to create comparable datasets for assessing plastic pollution from river basins to the ocean.
Assessment of Different Sampling, Sample Preparation and Analysis Methods Addressing Microplastic Concentration and Transport in Medium and Large Rivers Based on Research in the Danube River Basin
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Monitoring microplastics in rivers is hampered by the lack of standardized methods, making it difficult to compare results across studies. This research tested three common sampling approaches on the Danube River and its tributaries, finding that each method produced meaningfully different estimates of microplastic concentrations and transport. The results underscore the urgent need for agreed-upon protocols so that data from different countries and research groups can be reliably combined to track river-to-ocean plastic pollution.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.