Citizen science sampling programs as a technique for monitoring microplastic pollution: results, lessons learned and recommendations for working with volunteers for monitoring plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems
Citizen science sampling programs as a technique for monitoring microplastic pollution: results, lessons learned and recommendations for working with volunteers for monitoring plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems
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DOI：
10.1007/s10661-019-7297-3
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发表时间：
2019-03-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Vermaire, Jesse C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Forrest, Shaun A.;Holman, Larissa;Vermaire, Jesse C.
开发了一种公民科学微塑料监测方法，以吸引公众参与，并量化从Temiskaming湖到加拿大安大略Hawkesbury的渥太华河约550公里长的沿着各个地点的微塑料污染。志愿者们在沿着渥太华河的理想位置用100米长的筛网过滤100升河水。除了一个河流样本（n=43）外，所有河流样本都含有微塑料，绝大多数微塑料被确定为微纤维。微塑料浓度范围为每升0.02至0.41个微塑料碎片。我们注意到与公民科学家合作的许多优势，包括积极吸引公民参与研究，易于在已建立的渥太华河流守护者网络内招募志愿者，并以最小的额外成本扩大空间覆盖范围。尽管有这些重要的优势，但公民科学家采样也有一些重要的考虑因素，包括志愿者错误标记样本表的罕见事件（例如标记为对照而不是河流样本）以及志愿者可以使用我们的方法轻松采样的相对较低的水体积（100 L）。对未来淡水微塑料研究的公民科学项目的建议包括利用一个已建立和参与的网络，运行现场和实验室对照样品（空白），以获得微塑料纤维污染的估计，并增加过滤水量，以获得对淡水生态系统中微塑料污染的更可靠估计。
A citizen science microplastic monitoring method was developed to engage the public and quantify microplastic contamination at various sites along an approximately 550km length of the Ottawa River from Lake Temiskaming to Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada. The volunteers filtered 100L of river water through a 100-m mesh at their desired location along the Ottawa River. All but one of the river samples (n=43) contained microplastics, with the vast majority of microplastics identified as microfibers. Microplastic concentrations ranged from 0.02 to 0.41 microplastic pieces per litre. We noted numerous advantages in working with citizen scientists including actively engaging citizens in the research, ease of recruiting volunteers within the established Ottawa Riverkeeper network, and expanded spatial coverage at minimal additional costs. Despite these important advantages, there are some important considerations with citizen scientist sampling including the rare events where volunteers mislabelled sample sheets (e.g. labelling as control instead of river sample) and the relatively low volume of water (100L) that the volunteers could easily sample using our methodology. Recommendations for future citizen science projects for freshwater microplastic research include utilising an established and engaged network, running both field and lab control samples (blanks) to obtain estimates of contamination with microplastic fibres, and increasing the amount of water filtered to obtain more reliable estimates of microplastic pollution in our freshwater ecosystems.