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Nanoplastics in Loch Ness and surrounding rivers and channels
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Scientists found tiny plastic particles called nanoplastics in Scotland's famous Loch Ness and nearby rivers, even at depths over 300 feet underwater. These ultra-small plastic pieces came from common sources like plastic bottles, bags, and car tires, and were present even in remote areas far from cities. This matters because it shows that nanoplastics can travel long distances and contaminate drinking water sources, though more research is needed to understand health risks from consuming these particles.
Nanoplastics (NPs) are an emerging class of pollutants that remain challenging to accurately quantify in environmental matrices. Increasing evidence suggests their potential for long-range atmospheric and aquatic transport, contributing to their global distribution [1,2]. Understanding NP occurrence in remote environments is therefore essential for identifying sources, transport pathways, and baseline background levels.In this study, we analyzed water samples from Loch Ness and surrounding rivers and channels in the Scottish Highlands to assess the presence and composition of nanoplastics using Thermal Desorption – Proton Transfer Reaction – Mass Spectrometry (TD-PTR-MS) [3]. This represents one of the first reports of nanoplastics in UK inland waters.The dominant polymer types detected were polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and tire-wear particles (TWP). Nanoplastics were present even at depths exceeding 100 m in Loch Ness. Subsurface NP concentrations in lakes were influenced by the proximity of local sources, while among the rivers, the Ness River showed the highest levels near urban areas, with some tributaries exhibiting no detectable NPs.Spatial patterns suggest a mix of local and long-range inputs. Elevated NP concentrations near populated and industrial areas point to local emissions, while consistent background levels of PET across remote sites indicate atmospheric or diffuse sources. These findings demonstrate nanoplastics to be pervasive even in isolated freshwater systems, and underline the need for integrated monitoring approaches to better understand their transport and fate. References[1] D. Materić, M. Peacock, J. Dean, M. Futter, T. Maximov, F. Moldan, T. Röckmann, R. Holzinger, Presence of nanoplastics in rural and remote surface waters, Environ. Res. Lett. 17 (2022) 054036. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac68f7.[2] D. Allen, S. Allen, S. Abbasi, A. Baker, M. Bergmann, J. Brahney, T. Butler, R.A. Duce, S. Eckhardt, N. Evangeliou, T. Jickells, M. Kanakidou, P. Kershaw, P. Laj, J. Levermore, D. Li, P. Liss, K. Liu, N. Mahowald, P. Masque, D. Materić, A.G. Mayes, P. McGinnity, I. Osvath, K.A. Prather, J.M. Prospero, L.E. Revell, S.G. Sander, W.J. Shim, J. Slade, A. Stein, O. Tarasova, S. Wright, Microplastics and nanoplastics in the marine-atmosphere environment, Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. (2022) 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-022-00292-x.[3] D. Materić, A. Kasper-Giebl, D. Kau, M. Anten, M. Greilinger, E. Ludewig, E. van Sebille, T. Röckmann, R. Holzinger, Micro- and Nanoplastics in Alpine Snow: A New Method for Chemical Identification and (Semi)Quantification in the Nanogram Range, Environ. Sci. Technol. 54 (2020) 2353–2359. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b07540.
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