Microplastics in sediments of artificially recharged lagoons: Case study in a Biosphere Reserve
Authors
Edo Cuesta, Carlos; González Pleiter, Miguel; Tamayo Belda, Miguel; Ortega Ojeda, Fernando Ernesto; Leganés, Francisco; [et al.]Identifiers
Permanent link (URI): http://hdl.handle.net/10017/60664DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138824
ISSN: 0048-9697
Date
2020-04-01Affiliation
Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Física y Matemáticas; Universidad de Alcalá. Departamento de Química Analítica, Química Física e Ingeniería QuímicaBibliographic citation
Science of the Total Environment, 2020, v. 729, n. 138824, p. 1-11
Keywords
Microplastics
Sediments
Wetlands
FTIR
Wastewater
OPLS-DA
Project
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement//CTM2016-74927-C2-1/2-R/ES/
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/aceptedVersion
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
© Elsevier
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abstract
We studied the occurrence of microplastics in sediments of artificially and non-artificially recharged lagoons from the network of endorheic wetlands called ?La Mancha Húmeda?, declared Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The particles sampled in this study covered the 25 ?m?5 mm range. Films were the dominant microplastic typol-ogy in non-artificially recharged lagoons, while fibres and fragments were more abundant in those receiving wastewater. The concentration of microplastics in sediments reached up to 24.4 ± 5.2 microplastics/g, while plastic litter counts yielded b1 particle/g in non-wastewater receiving lagoons. Eleven types of plastic were iden- tified using Micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (micro-FTIR), the most abundant being the polyole-fins polyethylene and polypropylene, and polyester and acrylic fibres. The statistical analysis of FTIR spectra confirmed the similarity between samples taken from recharged lagoons and wastewater treatment plant effluents. Overall, our results showed that endorheic lagoons are very sensitive to the accumulation of persistent pol- lutants, which include microplastics. The recharge of lagoons with wastewater effluents to maintain water levels, even if correctly treated according to current standards, is not a sustainable practice. Due to the closed character of endorheic basins, the continuous input of wastewater led to the accumulation of microplastics in sediments of wastewater receiving lagoons up to 40 times over non-recharged lagoons.
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