Microplastic pollution in St. Lawrence River sediments

Although widely detected in marine ecosystems, microplastic pollution has only recently been documented in freshwater environments, almost exclusively in surface waters. Here, we report microplastics (polyethylene microbeads, 0.40–2.16 mm diameter) in the sediments of the St. Lawrence River. We sampled 10 freshwater sites along a 320 km section from Lake St. Francis to Quebec City by passing sediment collected from a benthic grab through a 500 μm sieve. Microbeads were discovered throughout 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−2 and 13 832 (±13 677) microbeads·m−2, respectively. The highest site density was 1.4 × 105 microbeads·m−2 (or 103 microbeads·L−1), which is similar in magnitude to microplastic concentrations found in the world’s most contaminated marine sediments. Mean diameter of microbeads was smaller at sites receiving municipal or industrial effluent (0.70 ± 0.01 mm) than at non-e...

[1]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  Microplastic ingestion decreases energy reserves in marine worms , 2013, Current Biology.

[2]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  The physical impacts of microplastics on marine organisms: a review. , 2013, Environmental pollution.

[3]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  Ingested microscopic plastic translocates to the circulatory system of the mussel, Mytilus edulis (L). , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[4]  P. Corcoran,et al.  Comparison of the distribution and degradation of plastic debris along shorelines of the Great Lakes, North America , 2014 .

[5]  Miriam C. Goldstein,et al.  Gooseneck barnacles (Lepas spp.) ingest microplastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre , 2013, PeerJ.

[6]  Erin R. Graham,et al.  Deposit- and suspension-feeding sea cucumbers (Echinodermata) ingest plastic fragments , 2009 .

[7]  Colin R. Janssen,et al.  Microplastic pollution in deep-sea sediments. , 2013, Environmental pollution.

[8]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  Potential for plastics to transport hydrophobic contaminants. , 2007, Environmental science & technology.

[9]  C. Moore,et al.  Persistent organic pollutants carried by synthetic polymers in the ocean environment. , 2007, Marine pollution bulletin.

[10]  Fiona Murray,et al.  Plastic contamination in the decapod crustacean Nephrops norvegicus (Linnaeus, 1758). , 2011, Marine pollution bulletin.

[11]  Mary A Sewell,et al.  Contributing to marine pollution by washing your face: microplastics in facial cleansers. , 2009, Marine pollution bulletin.

[12]  J. Porcher,et al.  Wild gudgeons (Gobio gobio) from French rivers are contaminated by microplastics: preliminary study and first evidence. , 2014, Environmental research.

[13]  M. McHugh,et al.  Occurrence of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tract of pelagic and demersal fish from the English Channel. , 2013, Marine pollution bulletin.

[14]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[15]  E. Schludermann,et al.  The Danube so colourful: A potpourri of plastic litter outnumbers fish larvae in Europe's second largest river , 2014, Environmental pollution.

[16]  E. Carpenter,et al.  Plastics on the Sargasso Sea Surface , 1972, Science.

[17]  Florian Faure,et al.  Pollution due to Plastics and Microplastics in Lake Geneva , 2012 .

[18]  P. Farrell,et al.  Trophic level transfer of microplastic: Mytilus edulis (L.) to Carcinus maenas (L.). , 2013, Environmental pollution.

[19]  Richard C. Thompson,et al.  Microplastics in the marine environment: a review of the methods used for identification and quantification. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.

[20]  Vivi Fleming-Lehtinen,et al.  Ingestion and transfer of microplastics in the planktonic food web. , 2014, Environmental pollution.

[21]  M. Costa,et al.  The present and future of microplastic pollution in the marine environment. , 2014, Environmental pollution.

[22]  Marcus Eriksen,et al.  Microplastic pollution in the surface waters of the Laurentian Great Lakes. , 2013, Marine pollution bulletin.

[23]  M. Gregory,et al.  Plastic ‘scrubbers’ in hand cleansers: a further (and minor) source for marine pollution identified , 1996 .

[24]  Reinhard Niessner,et al.  Contamination of beach sediments of a subalpine lake with microplastic particles , 2013, Current Biology.

[25]  V. Moschino,et al.  Microplastic particles in sediments of Lagoon of Venice, Italy: First observations on occurrence, spatial patterns and identification , 2013 .

[26]  T. Galloway,et al.  Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: a review. , 2011, Marine pollution bulletin.

[27]  C. Rochman,et al.  Ingested plastic transfers hazardous chemicals to fish and induces hepatic stress , 2013, Scientific Reports.