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Contamination of watersheds of small Karelian lakes with anthropogenic litter caused by recreation activities
Summary
Researchers assessed anthropogenic litter contamination at tourist campsites on the watersheds of small Karelian lakes in Russia's boreal zone, finding that litter quantity was proportional to campsite area and maximum camp capacity. The study introduced a new monitoring approach for evaluating plastic and non-plastic litter inputs to freshwater lake systems caused by recreational activities.
Contamination of the environment with wastes is one of the main ecological problems of the present. The majorconcern is the contamination of the World Ocean and inland waters with anthropogenic litter in general and plastics in particular. Toassess the level of contamination of small lakes in a boreal zone with anthropogenic litter, in 2021 research was conducted to study thequantity and composition of such litter on watersheds of several small lakes in Karelia (Uros, Tilkuslampi, Koveryarvi, Valgilampi,Koverlampi). The research focused on tourist campsites as ‘hot spots’ of such contamination. As a result, a new approach has beenintroduced for such monitoring. It was found that the quantity of anthropogenic litter is proportional to the camp area, as well as to themaximum camp capacity in terms of the number of tourists. Anthropogenic litter was found on all of the 29 studied sites (overall 3,820litter pcs.), with the maximum quantity on the largest of the studied lakes – Uros (2,053 litter pcs.). The maximum litter density calculated per square meter and per person was observed on the second largest of the studied lakes – Lake Tilkuslampi (1.73 pcs./m2and61.1 pcs./person on average). The identified levels of anthropogenic litter contamination are comparable to the contamination of seabeaches. In terms of the litter composition, items related to eating and drinking dominated (59% on average). Plastic products accountedfor 56% of all waste; metal, glass, and textiles made up 20, 17, and 5% respectively. The predominance of plastics in litter compositionindicates that anthropogenic litter left on the shores of the lakes is a potential source of microplastics entering the lakes. The elaborated monitoring program can be applied to assess contamination with anthropogenic litter of other water objects in a boreal zone. The resultsobtained allowed us to approximately assess the quantity of anthropogenic litter accumulated in the forested area of Karelia.