concentrations of microparticles in lakes, i.e., in the Nan Lake, where more than
5745 items per m
3 were found (Wang et al. 2017a). Lake Hovsgol and those lakes
within the Siling Lake basin (northern Tibet) were studied showing significant
concentrations of microplastics, 0.02 items per m
2 and 8–563 items per m
2 (Zhang
et al. 2016), respectively, although these locations have little human activity. This
may be due to inappropriate waste management in low-density populations.
Figure 1.6 represents a map of Europe with the main accumulations of
microplastics. The most contaminated areas were Lysekil (Sweden), where quantities of 8360 items per kg in sediments and 8.25 items per m
3 in water were estimated
(Magnusson and Noren). In Meuse River (Netherlands), 1400 items per kg (sediments) were estimated (Leslie et al. 2017), whereas in Itchen River (UK), 1155 items
per m
3 (water) were estimated (Gallagher et al. 2016).
North America is represented in Fig. 1.7, with the main areas where microplastics
accumulate. The most contaminated areas are Canada and the United States. Chicago
River (USA) contained about 6.69E10
6 items per m
2 (McCormick et al. 2014), while
St. Lawrence River (Canada) contained 13,832 items per m
2 (Castañeda et al. 2014).
There are also other rivers, such as Los Angeles River, that have high concentrations
Fig. 1.6 Abundance of microplastics in sediment and water samples from different freshwater
systems, i.e., rivers or lakes, across Europe. The abundances present in sediments are expressed in
items per m
2 or items per kg, while the abundances in water are expressed in items per m
3 (Sources
of data: Fischer et al. (2016), Gallagher et al. (2016), Horton et al. (2017a, b), Imhof et al. (2013),
Lechner et al. (2014), Leslie et al. (2017), Magnusson and Noren (2014), Mani et al. (2015),
Schmidt et al. (2018), Vaughan et al. (2017). Source of figure: Original production)
1 Microplastic Pollution in Water
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