Micro-rubber Menace: Pinpointing Particles in Freshwater Systems

Microplastics are a growing concern within freshwater ecosystems and can be found from many sources including landfills, tires, and textiles. They are transported many ways (e.g., wind, runoff, wastewater treatment plant discharges) and biofoul overtime, changing their density and location within the water column. One type of microplastic is microrubber, elastomer particles <= 1mm in size. These are often found from tire abrasion or polyisoprene rubber pellets. Rubber pellets were found in Lake Champlain long-term monitoring (LTM) samples, which were acquired during vertical net sampling that monitors for changes in phytoplankton, zooplankton communities while noting invasive species. We predicted that microrubber will be in greater abundance near urban sites. We examined LTM samples for microrubber and used Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and OpenSpecy to determine the plastics composition. Our results concluded that there was no pattern to microrubber distribution within Lake Champlain and that their presence was recorded lakeside from 2012 onward. In the future, we will continue to process more LTM and tributary samples, and research possible sources of microrubber. To limit the microplastics leaching into our freshwater systems, we must first identify the sources, then find ways to mitigate and manage plastic pollution.