[H-CG19] Microplastics & Micro-pollutants in the Environment - The 3Ts

[HCG19-01] Microplastic Transport from Rivers to Coastal Oceans

★Invited Papers

*Andrew B Gray^1,2, Clare Murphy-Hagan¹, Samiksha Singh^1,3, Win Cowger^1,4, Hannah Hapich¹, John Perna¹, Haley Johnson¹, Oluniyi Fadare¹ (1.University of California, Riverside, USA, 2.Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, IWU, Germany, 3.Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), South Africa, 4.The Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, USA)

Keywords:plastic, pollution, sampling, suspended sediment, marine, estuary

Most of the microplastics entering the ocean are discharged from rivers. Thus, the overland cascade of microplastics from terrestrial sources through riverine, estuarine, and coastal marine environments is a critical component of the global microplastics cycle. Although efforts to monitor this cascade have proliferated over the past decade, sparse field data and abundant knowledge gaps concerning transport dynamics continue to hamper the advancement of numerical models. In this presentation, we will overview the challenges and opportunities facing the microplastics research community's approach to process-based monitoring of these systems, highlight some of our recent findings, and discuss ongoing needs. In river systems, we will address the issues of isokinetic sampling, concentration dependence on discharge, position in the flow field, antecedent hydrologic conditions, and time in the context of effective discharge. In estuaries and coastal marine systems, we will discuss the role of effective particle size and character in the context of local hydrodynamics and sediment deposition regimes. Across all aquatic compartments, meeting the challenge of representative monitoring continues to be of paramount importance.