Universität zu Köln

Rolf, Markus ORCID: 0000-0001-8448-3676, Laermanns, Hannes, Kienzler, Lukas, Pohl, Christian, Moeller, Julia N., Laforsch, Christian, Loeder, Martin G. J. and Bogner, Christina ORCID: 0000-0003-4495-0676 (2022). Flooding frequency and floodplain topography determine abundance of microplastics in an alluvial Rhine soil. Sci. Total Environ., 836. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. ISSN 1879-1026

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Abstract

Rivers are major pathways for the transport of microplastics towards the oceans, and many studies focus on microplastic abundance in fluvial ecosystems. Although flooding strongly affects transport of microplastics, knowledge about the potential input via floodwaters, spatial distribution, and fate of microplastics in adjacent floodplains remains very limited. In this study, we suggest that local topography and flood frequency could influence the abundance of microplastics in floodplains. Based on this concept, we took soil samples in a Rhine River floodplain in two different depths (0-5 cm and 5-20 cm) along three transects with increasing distance to the river and analysed the abundance of microplastics via FTIR spectroscopy. Flood frequency of the transects was estimated by a combination of hydrodynamic modelling with MIKE 21 (DHI, Horsholm Denmark) and analysis of time series of water levels. Microplastic abundance per kg dry soil varied between 25,502 to 51,119 particles in the top 5 cm and 25,616 to 84,824 particles in the deeper soil (5-20 cm). The results of our study indicate that local topography and resulting flooding patterns are responsible for the amount of microplastics found at the respective transect. Differences in soil properties, vegetation cover and signs of earthworm activity in the soil profile seem to be related to microplastic migration and accumulation in the deeper soil. The interdisciplinary approach we used in our work can be applied to other floodplains to elucidate the respective processes. This information is essentially important both for locating potential microplastic sinks for process-informed sampling designs and to identify areas of increased bioavailability of microplastics for proper ecological risk assessment.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Rolf, Markus UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-8448-3676 UNSPECIFIED Laermanns, Hannes UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Kienzler, Lukas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Pohl, Christian UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Moeller, Julia N. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Laforsch, Christian UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Loeder, Martin G. J. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Bogner, Christina UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0003-4495-0676 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-673310
DOI:	10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155141
Journal or Publication Title:	Sci. Total Environ.
Volume:	836
Date:	2022
Publisher:	ELSEVIER
Place of Publication:	AMSTERDAM
ISSN:	1879-1026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language TRANSPORT; PLASTICS; AREA Multiple languages Environmental Sciences Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/67331