UNH Today

As rivers flow to the ocean, they carry with them more than just fresh water — plastic litter of all shapes and sizes is washed or blown into streams and can harm animals and pollute drinking water along the way. Scientists are now trying to figure out just how much of that plastic stays within the rivers instead of washing out to sea.

联合国大学的一个研究小组获得了429美元的奖金,900 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Hydrologic Sciences Program to estimate the amount of plastic accumulating in rivers near three major metropolitan regions: Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and Toronto, Ontario. The data gleaned from this project will help water resource managers identify hot spots for plastic pollution in order to prioritize clean-up locations and could help them determine how much plastic is building up in streams and rivers and whether or not drinking water sources are being impacted.

The research team is led by Wilfred Wollheim, UNH associate professor in the 自然资源和环境部 and in the Earth Systems Research Center (ESRC).

Not all plastic washes out to sea. 这里，塑料垃圾堆积在伊利诺伊州的芝加哥河上. Tim Hoellein，芝加哥洛约拉大学.

Richard Lammers, ESRC的研究助理教授, Shan Zuidema, an ESRC research scientist, and Wollheim will collaborate with researchers from the Loyola University of Chicago and the University of Toronto on the project, with a total grant award of $850,000.

“我们有这么多的塑料下落不明, even after considering recycling, garbage and what ends up in our oceans,” Wollheim says. “So where is the rest of that plastic? 河流不仅仅是向海洋输送塑料的管道. As it moves downstream, it may settle, break into pieces or interact with aquatic life. We suspect a lot of that unaccounted plastic is building up in surface waters like rivers, 但是我们不知道有多少在那里积累.”

The research team will take a novel approach by combining computer models and field measurements to estimate how much plastic accumulates within the rivers, how long it stays there and how storms affect its movement towards the sea. The UNH researchers will sample rivers within Massachusetts’ Ipswich River Watershed, which empties into Plum Island Sound, 寻找和表征漂浮在水面上的塑料, suspended in the water column and stored in the sediments or on the riverbanks. Scientists from the two collaborating universities will sample their own metro area rivers. All combined, these data will provide a bigger picture of plastic pollution within temperate climates.

Wollheim says the findings from this research could help resource managers figure out strategies for preventing plastic from entering rivers and develop more effective approaches for cleaning up the pollution. He’s hopeful the research will also contribute to the larger picture of plastic transport and fate within aquatic systems of the Northeast, 以及帮助人们思考自己的塑料垃圾的影响.  

The 地球、海洋和空间研究所(EOS) is UNH's largest research enterprise, 由六个以跨学科为重点的中心组成, 对地球和气候系统的高影响力研究, space science, the marine environment, 海底测绘和环境声学. 每年获得6 000多万美元的外部资金, EOS fosters an intellectual and scientific environment that advances visionary scholarship and leadership in world-class research and graduate education.