Page - 119 - in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
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information, reporting the presence of MPs from any compartment of African
freshwater systemswouldbe awelcomeaddition to the literature.
AsdescribedbyWagneretal. [8], informationon the fateofMPs in freshwaters
is scarce, if not absent. Some common questions that need to be addressed in all
freshwaters and are still outstanding inmarinewaters include (1) the behavior of
MPs in environment – how they distribute andwhere they settle; (2) interactions
with biota, such as rates of excretion, accumulation, and infiltration in tissue;
(3) effects of MP exposure in order to determine environmental hazard; and
(4) interaction between MPs and other pollutants, the so-called vector effect.
Such considerations are as important in African freshwaters as elsewhere, but as
inmost locations, regionalconcernsarealsonoted.AsdegradationratesofMPsare
influenced by the amount and strength of UV radiation [74], MPs in African
freshwaters, largely located in the tropics, are likely to be degraded faster than in
more temperate conditions as reactions, such as photolysis, thermo-oxidation, and
photooxidation, are accelerated in strongUV light [74, 75].Degradation rates for
MPs under these conditions and how this affects the aforementioned questions of
distribution,biotic interactions, interactionswithwaterbornechemicals, andvector
interactions shouldbedetermined.
In order to prevent and mitigate deleterious effects, the challenges of MP
pollution cannot be dealtwith by solely focusingon their presence and impacts in
the environment, but rather investigation of the entire chain from production to
disposal is mandatory [76]. Thus questions of fate must be integrated into the
requirement to report the presence and understand the sources. We recommend
thefollowingfocusareastoassess thecurrentstateofMPsinAfricaninlandwaters:
1. Establishing a more complete picture ofMP pollution in African freshwaters
with the prioritizationof locationswith dense urbanpopulations
2. Environmentalmonitoringprograms that encompasswater, sediment, andbiota
sampling and that consider spatial and temporal distributions
3. Lifecycleassessmentsofplastics that considerproduction throughdisposal and
fate in the environment
4. Interactions betweenMPs and (a) environmental factors, (b) other pollutants,
and (c) resident biota
5 Conclusions
Knowledgeregardingthepresence, sources,andfateofMPsinfreshwaters isbeing
gathered apace in different parts of the world, but this information is currently
lacking in Africa. Owing to the human pressures that increased urbanization has
placed on many inland rivers and lakes, in combination with ineffective waste
management and a general lack of awareness (although there are some notable
exceptions, e.g., plastic bagbans), the potential forMPpollution is great.
Microplastics in InlandAfricanWaters: Presence, Sources, andFate 119
Freshwater Microplastics
Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Title
- Freshwater Microplastics
- Subtitle
- Emerging Environmental Contaminants?
- Authors
- Martin Wagner
- Scott Lambert
- Publisher
- Springer Open
- Date
- 2018
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- ISBN
- 978-3-319-61615-5
- Size
- 15.5 x 24.1 cm
- Pages
- 316
- Categories
- Naturwissenschaften Chemie