RT Journal Article
T1 The human connection: First evidence of microplastics in remote high mountain lakes of Sierra Nevada, Spain.
A1 Godoy, Veronica
A1 Calero, Monica
A1 Gonzalez-Olalla, Juan M
A1 Martin-Lara, Maria A
A1 Olea, Nicolas
A1 Ruiz-Gutierrez, Adrian
A1 Villar-Argaiz, Manuel
K1 Citizen science
K1 Freshwater contamination
K1 High-mountain lakes
K1 Microplastics
K1 Spanish Sierra Nevada
AB Microplastics have become one of the most serious global threats to animal and human health. While their presence has been documented in all Earth water ecosystems, including remote mountain lakes, the observation that the abundance of microplastics is largely different across nearby lakes has rarely been examined. As part of a citizen science initiative, this study analyzed for the first time the abundance of microplastics in the surface of 35 glacial lakes of Sierra Nevada National Park in Southern Spain with the objective of determining the local factors that control their abundance. First, we described the shape, size, color and nature of microplastics. Second, we tested whether the number of microplastics differed between basins and analyzed environmental and morphometrical features of lakes affecting their abundance. We found that microplastics were common in most lakes, with a maximum abundance of 21.3 particles per liter that akin to some of the most microplastic polluted lakes worldwide. Fragments were the predominant shape (59.7%) followed by fibers (38.8%) and very scarce spheres (1.5%). Microplastics were observed for all size-fractions, but the abundance of particles
PB Elsevier Ltd
YR 2022
FD 2022-08-04
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10668/22207
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10668/22207
LA en
NO Godoy V, Calero M, González-Olalla JM, Martín-Lara MA, Olea N, Ruiz-Gutierrez A, et al. The human connection: First evidence of microplastics in remote high mountain lakes of Sierra Nevada, Spain. Environ Pollut. 2022 Oct 15;311:119922.
DS RISalud
RD Apr 7, 2025