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Fate and Transport of Microplastics in Freshwater Ecosystems - The 100 Plastic River Network
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The 100 Plastic River network is developing a standardized, globally applicable methodology for sampling microplastics from surface water and sediment across freshwater systems on all continents, addressing the severe lack of consistent methods in current research. Early results from citizen science sampling campaigns demonstrate the feasibility of this approach for large-scale freshwater monitoring.
The fate and transport of microplastics in freshwater ecosystem is critically understudied, suffering from a severe lack of consistence in sampling and extraction methods between emerging case studies. The 100 Plastic River network aims to develop a generally applicable methodology for microplastic sampling and extraction, deployed for both surface water and sediment sampling across all continents. We will present the validated field methodology and results from first citizen science sampling campaigns across European river estuaries, discussing the challenges and opportunities for such community approach. We will discuss how the derived global information of flow weighted surface water plastics concentrations and depth profiled streambed sediment plastic samples will help to identify source area contributions of primary and secondary microplastics in rivers world-wide. We will further present future approaches of langrangian plastics monitoring in selected large river systems in order to elucidate how hydrodynamic conditions and plastic properties control microplastic degradation and ageing as well as deposition and accumulation in freshwater ecosystems – potentially resulting the generation of a pollution legacy for generations to come.
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The 100 Plastic Rivers Programme – A Participatory Approach to Analysing Global River Microplastic Pollution
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The 100 Plastic Rivers Programme reports first results from a global initiative to establish a standardized baseline of microplastic contamination in rivers using uniform sampling, extraction, and analytical protocols across over 100 river systems worldwide. The initiative directly addresses the lack of comparability between existing datasets arising from heterogeneous methodologies used by different research groups. Initial findings reveal spatial patterns and hotspots of microplastic pollution in global riverine systems.
Citizen science sampling programs as a technique for monitoring microplastic pollution: results, lessons learned and recommendations for working with volunteers for monitoring plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems
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Volunteers monitored microplastic contamination along 550 km of the Ottawa River in Canada using a standardized method, finding microplastics at almost every sampling site. Citizen science programs like this show promise for scaling up microplastic monitoring at low cost.
Techniques for Collecting Micro Plastics in Freshwaters and Sediments
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This review examined sampling methods used across 150 studies on microplastics in freshwater bodies and sediments, finding significant variation in sampling tools, mesh sizes, and analytical approaches that make it difficult to compare results across studies. Standardizing sampling and analysis protocols is one of the most pressing needs in microplastic research. Without comparable methods, it is difficult to assess the true extent of freshwater microplastic contamination globally.
Microplastics in freshwater sediment: A review on methods, occurrence, and sources
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This review synthesizes methods, occurrence data, and sources of microplastics in freshwater sediments, comparing approaches and providing recommendations for standardized sampling and analysis to fill knowledge gaps relative to marine research.
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.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.