Quantifying microplastics in Indiana’s Lake Michigan watershed and submerged aquatic vegetation

Abstract

Environmental breakdown of plastics produces synthetic microfibers, a class of microplastics that are most prevalent in surface waters. A main source of these pollutants is wastewater treatment plants which discharge into surface waters, including those that flow into Lake Michigan. Microplastics can settle into aquatic sediment or exist for lengths of time in the swash zone of the lakes; they can be ingested by organisms or concentrated in algae or other lake plankton, among other possibilities. As part of a larger Great Lakes study of the growth and senescence of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), the loads of synthetic microfibers in the SAV have been determined from Lake Michigan samples collected during the summer months of 2018, 2019 and 2020, and from various samples collected in the watershed and along the shoreline in Northwest Indiana. In order to effectively address microplastics pollution, a complete understanding of the distribution and fate of these pollutants is needed; this project is working toward that goal.