Prevailing impacts of river management on microplastic transport in contrasting US streams: rethinking global microplastic flux estimations

While microplastic inputs into rivers are assumed to be correlated with anthropogenic activities and to accumulate towards the sea, the impacts of water management on downstream microplastic transport are largely unexplored. A comparative study of microplastic abundance in Boulder Creek (BC), and its less urbanized tributary South Boulder Creek (SBC), (Colorado USA), characterized the downstream evolution of microplastics in surface water and sediments, evaluating the effects of urbanization and flow diversions on the up-to-downstream profiles of microplastic concentrations and loads. Water and sediment samples were collected from 21 locations along both rivers and microplastic properties determined by fluorescence microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The degree of catchment urbanization affected microplastic patterns, as evidenced by greater water and sediment concentrations and loads in BC than the less densely populated SBC, which is consistent with the differences in the degree of urbanization between both catchments. Microplastic removal through flow diversions was quantified, showing that water diversions removed over 500 microplastic particles per second from the river, and caused stepwise reductions of downstream loads at diversion points. This redistribution of microplastics back into the catchment should be considered in large scale models quantifying plastic fate and transport to the oceans.