Microplastic Pollution in St. Lawrence River
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Academic
Team of Researchers from McGill UniversitHave DiscoveredMicroplastics Widely Distributed Across the Bottom of the St. Lawrence River
Although widely detected in marine ecosystems,microplasticpollutionhas only recently been documented in freshwater environments, almost exclusively in surface waters. Here, we reportmicroplastics(polyethylene microbeads, 0.40-2.16 mm diameter) in thesedimentsof theSt.LawrenceRiver.
10 freshwater sites is sampled along a 320 km section from LakeSt. Francis to Québec by passingsedimentcollected from a benthic grab through a 500 μm sieve.
Microbeads werediscoveredthroughout this section, and their abundances varied by four orders of magnitude across sites. Median and mean (±1 SE) densities across sites were 52 microbeads·m−2and 13 832 (±13 677) microbeads·m−2, respectively.
The highest site density was 1.4 × 105microbeads·m−2(or 103microbeads·L−1), which is similar in magnitude tomicroplasticconcentrations found in the world's most contaminated marinesediments. Mean diameter of microbeads was smaller at sites receiving municipal or industrial effluent (0.70 ± 0.01 mm) than at non-effluent sites (0.98 ± 0.01 mm), perhaps suggesting differential origins.
Given the prevalence and locally high densities ofmicroplasticsinSt.LawrenceRiversediments, their ingestion by benthivorous fishes and macroinvertebrates warrants investigation.
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