Microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton Headwater Lakes, Ontario, Canada

Microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton Headwater Lakes, Ontario, Canada | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton Headwater Lakes, Ontario, Canada Brittany Welsh, Julian Aherne, Andrew M Paterson, Huaxia Yao, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Microplastics (mp) are a growing environmental concern due to their ubiquity in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Nonetheless, there is limited knowledge on their abundance in lakes in rural areas. In this study, we surveyed 14 headwater lakes in Muskoka-Haliburton, Ontario, to assess the spatial and temporal variability of microplastics. The average microplastic concentration across the study lakes was 1.78 mp/L during May–June 2019, with limited spatial variability (coefficient of variation = 22%). Further, microplastic abundance was weakly correlated with lake area (rs: 0.469), the number of shoreline residences (rs: 0.399), and watershed area (rs: 0.350), suggesting that diffusive inputs, such as atmospheric deposition, were the dominant source of microplastics to the study lakes. In contrast, microplastics showed a distinct temporal (seasonal) variability, as the average concentration in August 2019 (0.91 mp/L) was significantly lower (p<0.05) compared with May and June 2019. While microplastic abundance was generally higher in the metalimnion (0.70 mp/L) and epilimnion (0.67 mp/L), there was no significant difference by stratified layer. The annual percent removal of microplastics in lake sediment was estimated to be 14%, suggesting that for most of the study lakes, sediment burial was not a dominant sink for microplastics. Effective management of microplastic pollution requires an understanding of the interlinkages between microplastics in the atmosphere, lake water, and sediment. In rural areas, microplastic abundance appears to be dominated by atmospheric inputs, suggesting limited need for spatial monitoring. Temporal monitoring however is required to understand seasonal changes and long-term trends in microplastic abundance and delivery. Plastic pollution microfibres temporal variability sediment depth samples Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 21 Feb, 2022 Reviewers invited by journal 24 Jan, 2022 Editor assigned by journal 21 Dec, 2021 First submitted to journal 17 Dec, 2021 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-1181662","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":78826053,"identity":"a0f852a0-bb96-4767-a06a-221658f883e2","order_by":0,"name":"Brittany Welsh","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACAwbGBiiTuYGZoYI4LY0NB8BMRqCWMwYgvYS0AJXCtTC2EaHFXPpw++MPNXcSNxxvbP5cOO9PPr90/zEJhho7nFos+xKBDjv2LHHDmYNt0jO3GVjOnHOYTYLhWDJuh50B+YXtcOK2G4ltzLzbDAwMbiSzSYD8hV/LP6CW+w+bP/POMTCwh2ipx6/lYBvIFsYGad4GoC0SYC2Hcfulh7Fxxtm+w8b7zyS2SfMcMzaQuJFsbJFw7DhOLeY87A8+VHw7LDuz/fDhzzw1cgb8MxIf3vhQU41TCww4NqBwEwhqYGCwJ0LNKBgFo2AUjFQAAITqXAY7OBREAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1351-7570","institution":"Trent University","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Brittany","middleName":"","lastName":"Welsh","suffix":""},{"id":78826054,"identity":"c976c376-af2f-419e-a100-adbb1e68c509","order_by":1,"name":"Julian Aherne","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Trent University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Julian","middleName":"","lastName":"Aherne","suffix":""},{"id":78826055,"identity":"ae220ec8-fb54-4c4b-a431-4fa832fc5b25","order_by":2,"name":"Andrew M Paterson","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dorset Environmental Science Centre","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrew","middleName":"M","lastName":"Paterson","suffix":""},{"id":78826056,"identity":"4ed4cb57-0ac0-4fb6-9f76-2dc0da5853c8","order_by":3,"name":"Huaxia Yao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dorset Environmental Science Centre","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huaxia","middleName":"","lastName":"Yao","suffix":""},{"id":78826057,"identity":"8c5d060c-0b7e-44b9-a638-f03e374ef138","order_by":4,"name":"Chris McConnell","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Dorset Environmental Science Centre","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chris","middleName":"","lastName":"McConnell","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2021-12-17 16:39:42","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":17703029,"identity":"df381e72-c9b8-4fea-beef-db7caae77c0a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-01-27 15:26:25","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":604086,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"LakeThesisRegionalAssessmentFinal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-1181662/v1_covered.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eMicroplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton Headwater Lakes, Ontario, Canada\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[{"header":"Full Text","content":"This preprint is available for \u003ca href='/article/rs-1181662/latest.pdf' target='_blank'\u003edownload as a PDF\u003c/a\u003e."}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-earth-sciences","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"enge","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental Earth Sciences](https://www.springer.com/journal/12665)","snPcode":"12665","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/12665/3","title":"Environmental Earth Sciences","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Plastic pollution, microfibres, temporal variability, sediment, depth samples","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Microplastics (mp) are a growing environmental concern due to their ubiquity in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Nonetheless, there is limited knowledge on their abundance in lakes in rural areas. In this study, we surveyed 14 headwater lakes in Muskoka-Haliburton, Ontario, to assess the spatial and temporal variability of microplastics. The average microplastic concentration across the study lakes was 1.78 mp/L during May–June 2019, with limited spatial variability (coefficient of variation = 22%). Further, microplastic abundance was weakly correlated with lake area (rs: 0.469), the number of shoreline residences (rs: 0.399), and watershed area (rs: 0.350), suggesting that diffusive inputs, such as atmospheric deposition, were the dominant source of microplastics to the study lakes. In contrast, microplastics showed a distinct temporal (seasonal) variability, as the average concentration in August 2019 (0.91 mp/L) was significantly lower (p\u0026lt;0.05) compared with May and June 2019. While microplastic abundance was generally higher in the metalimnion (0.70 mp/L) and epilimnion (0.67 mp/L), there was no significant difference by stratified layer. The annual percent removal of microplastics in lake sediment was estimated to be 14%, suggesting that for most of the study lakes, sediment burial was not a dominant sink for microplastics. Effective management of microplastic pollution requires an understanding of the interlinkages between microplastics in the atmosphere, lake water, and sediment. In rural areas, microplastic abundance appears to be dominated by atmospheric inputs, suggesting limited need for spatial monitoring. Temporal monitoring however is required to understand seasonal changes and long-term trends in microplastic abundance and delivery.","manuscriptTitle":"Microplastics in Muskoka-Haliburton Headwater Lakes, Ontario, Canada","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-01-27 15:26:18","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-1181662/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2022-02-21T17:19:48+00:00","index":0,"fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2022-01-24T14:50:01+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2021-12-22T02:35:17+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Environmental Earth Sciences","date":"2021-12-17T11:39:22+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"environmental-earth-sciences","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"enge","sideBox":"Learn more about [Environmental Earth Sciences](https://www.springer.com/journal/12665)","snPcode":"12665","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/12665/3","title":"Environmental Earth Sciences","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"9c46d702-480d-40b2-b46d-9ab300f1ea39","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 27th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-11-26T20:26:26+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2022-01-27 15:26:18","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-1181662","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-1181662","identity":"rs-1181662","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"FbvkV6FR0MCFSLy54lSbu","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}