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Microfibers in the Riverine Environment
Summary
This review examines microfiber contamination in riverine environments, distinguishing cellulose-based natural fibers from petroleum-based artificial fibers originating from wastewater treatment plants and atmospheric deposition, highlighting their slow degradation, long residence times, and comparable harmful effects on zooplankton such as cladocerans, rotifers, and copepods.
Both the cellulose-based (CB) natural and petroleum-based (PB) artificial microfibers originating from wastewater treatment plants and atmospheric deposition are characteristic contaminants in the riverine environ-ment. Due to their extremely slow degradation and long resident time, the research interest is focused first of all on the PB-microfibers. However, if we consider the simi-lar harmful effect of the ingested natural or artificial mi-crofibers on the microorganisms, first of all on the zoo-planktons (e.g. cladocerans, rotifers, copepods) and the fact, that the biodegradation of CB-microfibers also needs a few months or half a year, it is evident that both type of these contaminants have negative effect on the aquatic ecosystem. Namely, the endangered zooplank-tons form the base of the aquatic food web and its stabil-ity is threated by the ingested microfibers. Our investiga-tions in this topic were focused at first on the microfiber emission of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Budapest studying the microplastic and microfiber con-centrations in the effluent.