Welcome to the Microplastics Fingerprinting project
Plastics pollution is a global and growing environmental hazard with potentially far-reaching consequences for food webs, biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. Of particular concern are microplastics because their small sizes enhance their mobility, toxicity to wildlife, and capacity to leach potentially dangerous contaminants.
The Microplastics Fingerprinting at the watershed scale: from sources to receivers projectseeks to better understand the sources, transport, fate and exposure risks of microplastics at a watershed scale in the lower Great Lakes. In doing so, we hope to inform program and policy approaches that can mitigate risks posed by plastic debris in the environment.
The project will analyze the reactivity and breakdown of microplastics in river systems and reservoirs, quantify the loads of microplastics delivered to the lower Great Lakes, optimize microplastics elimination in wastewater treatment plants, and determine the abundance and diversity of microplastics in drinking water sources.
This project is supported by the NSERC Alliance Grant competition on plastics science for a cleaner future. The project will contribute to Canada’s Plastics Science Agenda (CaPSA).
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Researcher Profile: Meet Peter Huck
Until his retirement on September 1, 2024, Peter M. Huck was a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo and was the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair in Water Treatment for 31 years, until the completion of the Chair in December, 2023. He plans to continue select research activities post retirement.
Aboard the R/V Lake Guardian: Exploring microplastics in Lake Erie
The Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) is a collaborative program between environmental organizations from Canada and the United States that focuses on monitoring and assessing conditions in the five Laurentian Great Lakes. For 2024, the spotlight was on Lake Erie, where a team of scientists embarked on a research cruise in July. This cruise, hosted by the Great Lakes Center at SUNY Buffalo State, aimed to explore changes in the lake's sediment bio-geochemical conditions. The primary focus involved conducting a lake-wide benthos survey as part of the U.S. Great Lakes Biology Monitoring Program, led by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Understanding microplastics in urban stormwater ponds: A step towards cleaner watersheds
Microplastics (MPs), tiny plastic particles less than 5 mm in diameter, pose a growing threat to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems due to their toxicity and resistance to degradation. In urban areas, stormwater runoff is a major conduit for MPs, often channeling them into green infrastructure such as stormwater ponds (SWPs). While existing evidence suggests that SWPs can effectively reduce MP loads from urban runoff, the mechanisms behind their retention and accumulation remain underexplored.