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Cuantificación de la presencia de microplásticos en la cuenca alta del río Guayllabamba
Summary
This study quantified microplastics in the upper basin of the Guayllabamba River in Ecuador, finding contamination at multiple sites. The results add to evidence that South American rivers far from major industrial centers are already contaminated with microplastics, which eventually flow toward coastal and marine environments.
In recent years the problem of contamination by microplastics has become more noticeable. Currently it is known that these particles less than 5 mm can lead to problems at both ecosystem level and health level due to the toxicity of its components. In spite of this, information on this topic has focused more on the oceans, leaving aside the rivers which are the ones that have the greatest contamination by these particles and which lead them to the oceans, and the information is limited to certain rivers in countries of the northern hemisphere. In South America, the information is practically nil. It is now known that these particles are mainly associated with the drainage areas, both domestic and industrial, and even dumps or streams. It is due to these reasons that this study focused on quantifying the microplastics present in the upper basin of the Guayllabamba River, which is related to all the discharges and waste produced in the city of Quito-Ecuador, where it also does not There is wastewater treatment. We perform an analysis by categories of microplastics in the different sampling points. The contamination of microplastics exists from the headwaters of the rivers with significant increases in urban areas of the Metropolitan District of Quito, with values higher than those recorded in the literature for rivers.