Microplastics as transport vectors of organic emerging contaminants in Brazilian aquatic matrices

Abstract

Environmental pollution by plastics is recognized as one of the most prominent anthropogenic factors affecting biodiversity and environmental quality globally. Advances in understanding the extent of plastic pollution and the effects on organisms have progressed rapidly and have been focused on marine environments; however, recent studies are emerging and demonstrate that freshwater ecosystems can be largely polluted by plastics and the effects on these ecosystems are unknown. This project proposes to investigate the environmental fate, physicochemical properties and exposure of organisms to microplastics in several impacted ecosystems of metropolitan areas of the State of São Paulo. The main objective is to establish a baseline of the extent and characteristics of microplastic pollution; and specifically to identify local inputs (human populations and wastewater effluents) of microplastics as well as emerging contaminants (ie, sorbed) to microplastics to assess exposure levels that freshwater organisms may be exposed having the microplastics at different stages of degradation as vectors of transport. Hydrographic basins located in urbanized regions will be used as a model for a spatio-temporal study of the occurrence and destination of microplastics in order to know the seasonal variation associated to changes in river levels during the rainy and dry seasons. Drinking water and Wastewater treatment plants will be investigated for the removal efficiency of the microplastics, as well as the physical and chemical characterization and stage of degradation of the same, in order to obtain a detailed diagnosis of the main sources of anthropic contamination by these contaminants. (AU)