Investigation of Microplastics in Freshwater Mussels ( Lasmigona costata ) From the Grand River Watershed in Ontario, Ca
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Investigation of Microplastics in Freshwater Mussels (Lasmigona costata) From the Grand River Watershed in Ontario, Canada C. Wardlaw & R. S. Prosser
Received: 16 February 2020 / Accepted: 25 June 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Microplastics have been identified as a widespread, persistent environmental pollutant. The investigation of microplastics in marine ecosystems has been prevalent in the literature; however, much less consideration has been given to this form of pollution in freshwater ecosystems. Relatively few studies have considered the uptake of microplastics in freshwater mussels. This study investigated the presence of microplastics in fluted-shell mussels (Lasmigona costata) collected from various sites in the Grand River watershed, Southern Ontario’s largest watershed and home to one million people. The soft tissue of adult mussels underwent enzyme digestion, followed by filtration to isolate undigested particles. Particles were removed and analyzed using Raman spectroscopy to determine their composition. Ten different polymers were identified in the sampled mussels, with polypropylene-co-polyethylene being the most prevalent. Microplastic particles were detected in 71% of mussels with the greatest number of particles observed
Capsule: Microplastics observed in the tissues of freshwater mussels (Lasmigona costata) in the Grand River watershed. A greater number of microplastics observed in mussels downstream of wastewater treatment facilities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-04741-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. C. Wardlaw : R. S. Prosser (*) School of Environmental Sciences, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada e-mail: [email protected]
in a single mussel being seven. No significant difference in microplastic particles per mussel was observed among the different sites sampled. A significant positive relationship between particles per mussel and size of upstream catchment was observed, but a relationship between particles per mussel and percentage of urban land use was not observed. Keywords Unionidae . Polypropylene . Polyethylene . Polymers
1 Introduction Plastic debris is considered one of the most abundant and enduring forms of pollution to date. While plastics provide an inexpensive versatile material for consumers, the high demand and production of plastics has led to widespread contamination of ecosystems in every area of the globe (Andrady and Neal 2009). An estimated 4.8–15.1 million tons of plastic debris enter the ocean every year, with between 1.15 and 2.41 million tons sourced from rivers (Jambeck et al. 2015; Lebreton et al. 2017). Plastics can be manufactured in a wide range of sizes and have been shown to break down into smaller fibers and fragments when released in the environment; these smaller particles are then classified as microplastics. The definition of microplastics varies, but they are generally
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