Presence of nanoplastics in rural and remote surface waters

Materic, Dusan, Peacock, Mike ORCID: 0000-0002-3086-2854, Dean, Joshua ORCID: 0000-0001-9058-7076, Futter, Martyn, Maximov, Trofim, Moldan, Filip, Rockmann, Thomas and Holzinger, Rupert (2022) Presence of nanoplastics in rural and remote surface waters. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS, 17 (5). 054036-054036.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac68f7

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>It is now established that microplastics are a pervasive presence in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The same is assumed to be true for nanoplastics but data are lacking due to technical difficulties associated with sample analysis. Here, we measured nanoplastics in waterbodies at two contrasting sites: remote Siberian Arctic tundra and a forest landscape in southern Sweden. Nanoplastics were detected in all sampled Swedish lakes (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 7) and streams (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> = 4) (mean concentration = 563 <jats:italic>µ</jats:italic>g l<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>) and four polymer types were identified (polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate). In Siberia nanoplastics were detected in 7/12 sampled lakes, ponds and surface flooding, but only two polymer types were detected (PVC and polystyrene) and concentrations were lower (mean 51 <jats:italic>µ</jats:italic>g l<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>). Based on back-calculation of air mass trajectories and particle dispersion, we infer that nanoplastics arrive at both sites by aerial deposition from local and regional sources. Our results suggest that nanoplastics may be a near-ubiquitous presence even in remote ecosystems.</jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	microplastics, nanoplastics, PTR-MS, TD-PTR-MS
Divisions:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Environmental Sciences
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	01 Aug 2022 10:17
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 20:54
DOI:	10.1088/1748-9326/ac68f7
Open Access URL:	https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-93...
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3160070