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Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs

Nature volume 619, pages 317–322 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Plastic debris is thought to be widespread in freshwater ecosystems globally1. However, a lack of comprehensive and comparable data makes rigorous assessment of its distribution challenging2,3. Here we present a standardized cross-national survey that assesses the abundance and type of plastic debris (>250 μm) in freshwater ecosystems. We sample surface waters of 38 lakes and reservoirs, distributed across gradients of geographical position and limnological attributes, with the aim to identify factors associated with an increased observation of plastics. We find plastic debris in all studied lakes and reservoirs, suggesting that these ecosystems play a key role in the plastic-pollution cycle. Our results indicate that two types of lakes are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination: lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized areas and large lakes and reservoirs with elevated deposition areas, long water-retention times and high levels of anthropogenic influence. Plastic concentrations vary widely among lakes; in the most polluted, concentrations reach or even exceed those reported in the subtropical oceanic gyres, marine areas collecting large amounts of debris4. Our findings highlight the importance of including lakes and reservoirs when addressing plastic pollution, in the context of pollution management and for the continued provision of lake ecosystem services.

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Fig. 1: Concentration and features of plastics identified in the 38 lakes and reservoirs.
Fig. 2: Relationship of plastic concentration and features with environmental and anthropogenic drivers.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during this study are available in the Zenodo repository, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7824882 .

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Acknowledgements

This manuscript benefited from conversations at meetings of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON; supported by funding from US NSF grants 1137327 and 1702991). This work was supported by the University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB). Raman facilities were provided by the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DISAT, UNIMIB) and the Interdepartmental Network of Spectroscopy (UNIMIB). We gratefully acknowledge G. Candian and E. Caprini for their assistance in the laboratory activities and data analysis. A.M.A.-G. acknowledges the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). R. Bao acknowledges support from Project IMPACOM (PID2019-107424RB-I00) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. M.C.-A. was supported by a Ramon y Cajal contract financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC2020-029829-I). M.C. acknowledges support from Cátedra EMALCSA-UDC (industrial chair). R.C. was supported by a Juan de la Cierva contract and Project FJC (FJC-2021-046415-I) of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation financed by the Next Generation EU. Z.E. and M.G.M. acknowledge support from the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) project no. PTDC/CTA-AMB/30793/2017 (AdaptAlentejo—Predicting ecosystem-level responses to climate change). H.F. acknowledges support from the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCaPE programme delivering National Capability. H.-P.G. and S.P. were supported by the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation 772 programme under grant agreement number 965367 (PlasticsFatE). D.P.H. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (DP190101848). S.N.M. acknowledges support from Rhodes University and the University Capacity Development Programme. K.K. acknowledges support from grant PRG 1266 of the Estonian Research Council. S.N. and S.S.S.S. acknowledge support from PAPIIT UNAM IG200820. A.P. acknowledges support from the Institute of Nature Conservation (Polish Academy of Sciences). P.R. acknowledges support from Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT) (DL57/2016/ICETA/EEC2018/25). E.-I.R. acknowledges support from grant PUT1598 of the Estonian Research Council. C.S. acknowledges support from the Flemish Interuniversity Council through the VLIR-UOS/UB Programme. G.A.W. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (VR; grant no. 2020-03222) and Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS; grant no. 2020-01091). N.W. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52279068). F.S. acknowledges support from an IAI-CONICET special grant.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Veronica Nava, Maria Luce Frezzotti, Valentina Orlandi, Davide Sartirana & Barbara Leoni

  2. Global Water Center, Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    Sudeep Chandra & Edward M. Krynak

  3. Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    Sudeep Chandra & Edward M. Krynak

  4. School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada

    Julian Aherne & Brittany Welsh

  5. Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    María B. Alfonso

  6. Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal

    Ana M. Antão-Geraldes

  7. Laboratório Associado para a Sustentabilidade e Tecnologia em Regiões de Montanha (SusTEC), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal

    Ana M. Antão-Geraldes

  8. WasserCluster Lunz - Biologische Station, Lunz am See, Austria

    Katrin Attermeyer

  9. Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Katrin Attermeyer

  10. Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía (CICA), GRICA Group, University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Roberto Bao & Rafael Carballeira

  11. Aquatic Ecology Group, University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia, Vic, Spain

    Mireia Bartrons & Àngels Leiva-Presa

  12. Department of Plankton and Microbial Ecology, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Stechlin, Germany

    Stella A. Berger, Hans-Peter Grossart, Christine Kiel & Solvig Pinnow

  13. Faculty of Food Sciences and Fisheries, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland

    Marcin Biernaczyk & Katarzyna Stepanowska

  14. Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Raphael Bissen

  15. School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia

    Justin D. Brookes & Tyler N. Dornan

  16. Department of Environmental Data, Horizons Regional Council, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    David Brown

  17. Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC), FEHM-Lab, Barcelona, Spain

    Miguel Cañedo-Argüelles

  18. Cátedra EMALCSA-UDC, React! Group, Faculty of Sciences & CICA, University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    Moisés Canle

  19. Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), Mendrisio, Switzerland

    Camilla Capelli, Fabio Lepori & Federica Rotta

  20. Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Rafael Carballeira

  21. Water and Environmental Engineering Group, University of A Coruña, A Coruña, Spain

    José Luis Cereijo & Jorge Delgado

  22. Department of Geology, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

    Sakonvan Chawchai

  23. Cphbusiness - Laboratory and Environment, Hillerød, Denmark

    Søren T. Christensen

  24. Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kirsten S. Christoffersen

  25. Marine Institute, Newport, Ireland

    Elvira de Eyto

  26. School of Natural Resources & Environment, Lake Superior State University, Sault Sainte Marie, MI, USA

    Jonathan P. Doubek

  27. Center for Freshwater Research and Education, Lake Superior State University, Sault Sainte Marie, MI, USA

    Jonathan P. Doubek

  28. Savoie Mont Blanc University, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, EDYTEM, Chambéry, France

    Julia Dusaucy & David Gateuille

  29. Department of Hydrology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Oxana Erina & Maria Tereshina

  30. Faculty of Biotechnology and Fisheries, Moscow State University of Technologies and Management (FCU), Moscow, Russia

    Oxana Erina

  31. FEHM-Lab (Freshwater Ecology, Hydrology and Management), Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain

    Zeynep Ersoy

  32. Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain

    Zeynep Ersoy

  33. Rui Nabeiro Biodiversity Chair, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED), Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal

    Zeynep Ersoy & Miguel G. Matias

  34. Lake Ecosystems Group, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Heidrun Feuchtmayr

  35. Water Research Institute, National Research Council, Verbania, Italy

    Silvia Galafassi

  36. CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning; UNESCO Chair – Land Within Sea: Biodiversity & Sustainability in Atlantic Islands, Universidade dos Açores, Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Açores, Portugal

    Vitor Gonçalves & Pedro Miguel Raposeiro

  37. Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologias, Universidade dos Açores, Ponta Delgada, Portugal

    Pedro Miguel Raposeiro

  38. Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany

    Vitor Gonçalves & Hans-Peter Grossart

  39. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia

    David P. Hamilton

  40. Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Ted D. Harris & Rebecca Kessler

  41. Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Külli Kangur

  42. Department of Biology, Kırıkkale University, Kırıkkale, Turkey

    Gökben Başaran Kankılıç

  43. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel G. Matias

  44. Biodiversity Division, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan

    Shin-ichiro S. Matsuzaki

  45. Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Belfast, Northern Ireland

    Yvonne McElarney & James Thompson

  46. Department of Hydrobiology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Beata Messyasz

  47. Department of Science and Innovation, Horizons Regional Council, Palmerston North, New Zealand

    Mark Mitchell

  48. Department of Freshwater Invertebrates, Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Musa C. Mlambo

  49. Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

    Samuel N. Motitsoe

  50. FES Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Tlalnepantla, Mexico

    Sarma Nandini & S. S. S. Sarma

  51. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Caroline Owens

  52. Environmental Research Institute - Te Pūtahi Rangahau Taiao, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Deniz Özkundakci

  53. Department of Freshwater Biology, Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland

    Agnieszka Pociecha

  54. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia

    Eva-Ingrid Rõõm

  55. Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige, Italy

    Nico Salmaso & Monica Tolotti

  56. Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)-CONICET, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Facundo Scordo

  57. Departamento de Geografía y Turismo, Universidad Nacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

    Facundo Scordo

  58. Center of Research in Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Burundi, Bujumbura, Burundi

    Claver Sibomana

  59. Wdecki Park Krajobrazowy, Osie, Poland

    Daniel Siewert

  60. Department of Biology, Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey

    Ülkü Nihan Tavşanoğlu

  61. School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, Northern Ireland

    James Thompson

  62. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Freshwater Ecology, Hamilton and Wellington, New Zealand

    Amanda Valois

  63. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Freshwater Ecology, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Piet Verburg

  64. Biological Services Department, Bay Mills Indian Community, Brimley, MI, USA

    Brian Wesolek

  65. Department of Ecology and Genetics, Limnology Group, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer

  66. Department of Geography and Spatial Information Techniques, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China

    Naicheng Wu

  67. Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Edyta Zawisza

  68. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    Lauren Zink

Authors
  1. Veronica Nava
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  2. Sudeep Chandra
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Contributions

V.N. and B.L. designed the study and drafted the manuscript; V.N. compiled the data and conducted analyses; V.N., S. Chandra, J.A., M.B.A., A.M.A.-G., K.A., R. Bao., S.A.B., M.B., J.D.B., M.C.-A., M.C., C.C., E.deE., J.P.D., O.E., Z.E., H.F., S.G., H.-P.G., D.P.H., T.D.H., K.K., C.K., A.L.-P., F.L., M.G.M., M.C.M., S.N.M., C.O., D.Ö., S.P., F.R., F.S., C.S., U.N.T., P.V., G.A.W., L.Z. and B.L. contributed to the discussion and conceptualization of the paper; V.N., S. Chandra, J.A., M.B.A, A.M.A.-G, K.A., R. Bao.,S.A.B., M.B., R. Bissen, D.B., M.C., C.C., R.C., J.L.C., S. Chawchai, S.T.C., E.deE., J. Delgado, T.N.D., J.P.D., J. Dusaucy, O.E., Z.E., H.F., S.G., D.G., V.G., H.-P.G., D.P.H., T.D.H., K.K., G.B.K., R.K., C.K., E.M.K., A.L.-P., S.S.M., Y.M., B.M., M.M., M.C.M., S.N.M., V.O., D.Ö., S.P., A.P., P.R., E.-I.R., F.R., F.S., C.S., D. Siewert, K.S., U.N.T., M. Tereshina, J.T., M. Tolotti, A.V., P.V., B.  Welsh, B. Wesolek, G.A.W., N.W. and E.Z. collected the samples; M.L.F. provided guidance and support for Raman analyses; J.A., M.C.-A., T.D.H., M.G.M., C.O., D. Sartirana and B. Welsh contributed to data analysis; S. Chandra, J.A., S.A.B., M.B., M.-C.A., E.deE., Z.E., H.F., S.G., D.P.H., E.M.K., A.L.-P., Y.M., S.N.M., C.O., P.V., G.A.W. and L.Z. performed language editing; S. Chandra, J.A., M.B.A., A.M.A.-G, K.A., M.C.-A., J.D.B., M.C., C.C., R.C., S.T.C., K.S.C., J. Delgado, T.N.D., J.P.D., Z.E., H.F., M.L.F., H.-P.G., D.P.H., K.K., K.S.C., E.M.K., F.L., M.G.M., B.M., M.C.M., S.N., C.O., S.P., S.N., N.S., S.S.S.S., M. Tolotti, P.V., B. Wesolek, G.A.W., L.Z. and B.L. provided constructive reviews to the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Veronica Nava.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Comparison of the density distribution of the features of our study lakes and reservoirs (in yellow) to the box plot of freshwater systems included in the HydroLAKES global dataset.

The features being compared are: lake area in km2 (a); mean depth in m (b); lake volume in km3 (c); residence time of lakes in years (d).

Extended Data Fig. 2 Means and s.e. of plastic concentration (particles m−3) resulting from the three trawls collected in each lake.

The lakes are ranked in descending order based on their particle concentration, from highest to lowest.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Clusters of lakes based on the features of plastic debris found.

Cluster plot showing the different lakes included in the study divided on the basis of the percentage occurrence of the plastic shapes, colours and polymeric compositions.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Scaling 1 of redundancy analysis between plastic concentration in lakes, features of plastics and environmental and anthropogenic drivers.

The dots are coloured on the basis of the concentration of plastics (particles m−3) detected.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Density plots and histogram of the Feret’s diameter (width, mm) of the 9,425 particles identified in the 38 lakes analysed.

The median trend is indicated by the dashed blue line.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Images of different shapes of plastic particles collected in water samples.

The pictures show the shape categories used in the study: fragment (a–c); fibre (d–f); filament (g–i); film (j,k); sphere/pellet (l).

Extended Data Table 1 Blank levels for laboratory-based QA/QC, reporting the absolute number of fibres detected in the blank filters used as control for each replicated sample (that is, trawl)
Full size table

Supplementary information

Peer Review File

Supplementary Table 1

Hydromorphological features and attributes of the 38 lakes and reservoirs included in the study.

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Nava, V., Chandra, S., Aherne, J. et al. Plastic debris in lakes and reservoirs. Nature 619, 317–322 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06168-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06168-4

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