Yesterday, we performed the microplastics sampling in Sau reservoir within GALACTIC: GlobAl LAke miCroplasTICs project leaded by Veronica Nava and Barbara Leoni from the University of Milano-Bicocca.

Microplastics are amongst the contaminants of emerging concern for aquatic systems. Although marine microplastic research remains at the forefront, in recent years researchers, recognising the comparative lack of studies on microplastics in freshwater environments, have begun to address this field as a matter of priority. Indeed, rivers and effluents have been identified as major pathways for microplastics of terrestrial sources (Horton et al., 2017). However, studies about microplastics in freshwaters are still scarce, highly fragmented, and little quantitative data are available (Lambert & Wagner, 2018). Up to now, harmonised and standardised protocols for the sampling and analysis of microplastics in aquatic samples do not exist (Horton et al., 2017).

Our objective is to sample different lakes worldwide to identify the occurrence of microplastics in surface water of different freshwater systems. In this way, we will perform a standardised sampling session to obtain comparable and reliable data about the microplastic occurrence in different systems. We will then test the relationship between the abundance of microplastics and the different watershed and lake features (land-use, population, catchment area…).