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Assessing the state of plastic pollution in Dutch river systems
2026
Score: 40
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Christian Schmidt,
Miranda Stibora,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Miranda Stibora,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Naddi Liese,
Naddi Liese,
Naddi Liese,
Paolo Tasseron
Paolo Tasseron
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Albert A. Koelmans,
Tim van Emmerik,
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Rose Boahemaa Pinto,
Paolo Tasseron
Louise Schreyers,
Louise Schreyers,
Miranda Stibora,
Miranda Stibora,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Paolo Tasseron
Gert Everaert,
Louise Schreyers,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Christian Schmidt,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Miranda Stibora,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Christian Schmidt,
Christian Schmidt,
Tim van Emmerik,
Christian Schmidt,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Christian Schmidt,
Rose Boahemaa Pinto,
Gert Everaert,
Christian Schmidt,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Christian Schmidt,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Chelsea Rochman,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Albert A. Koelmans,
Chelsea Rochman,
Gert Everaert,
Gert Everaert,
Rose Boahemaa Pinto,
Louise Schreyers,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Tim van Emmerik,
Gert Everaert,
Louise Schreyers,
Paolo Tasseron
Summary
Scientists created a new way to measure plastic pollution in rivers by tracking both tiny pieces (microplastics) and larger plastic debris across different parts of river systems. When they tested this method on rivers in the Netherlands, they found that plastic pollution levels vary dramatically between different waterways and change over time. This research is important because rivers carry plastic pollution from land to the ocean, and understanding where and how much plastic is in our waterways can help protect both water quality and human health.
Rivers play an important role in the global distribution of plastic pollution. Plastics are transported and retained by rivers, and may be exported to sea. Large-scale, long-term and harmonized plastic monitoring data are crucial to better quantify, understand, and reduce plastic pollution in the environment. Global data availability strongly depends on the river compartment (surface, water column, riverbank, sediment) and size range (micro or macro). Despite the surge in data collection efforts, a comprehensive framework to combine those data into actionable plastic pollution indicators is still lacking. Here, we present a methodology to holistically assess the state of plastic pollution for river systems. We defined eight plastic pollution indicators representing different river compartment and size ranges. All indicators can be quantified using commonly used monitoring methods. Indicator values are coupled to effect thresholds of microplastic and macroplastic, and combined to quantify the overall state of plastic pollution. Our method can be applied at multiple spatiotemporal scales. We applied our assessment method to the Netherlands, and included four rivers, two estuaries and five urban water systems. We show that the state of plastic pollution at the annual scale varies strongly between systems, changes over time, and is driven by different indicators (e.g. suspended macroplastic, floating macroplastic or riverbank macroplastic). With our work we aim to contribute to the development of comprehensive, globally applicable tools to assess plastic pollution in rivers.