Investigating Foliar Microplastic Deposition Across an Urbanization Gradient

Presenter: Lotus Carlson

Faculty Sponsor: Baoshan Xing

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Environmental Science and Sustainability

Session: Poster Session 5, 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM, Auditorium, A51

ABSTRACT

Created from physical, chemical, and biological weathering of plastics, microplastics (MPs) are an emerging environmental and public health concern. Due to high population, traffic, and industrial activity, urban areas are particularly prone to MPs pollution. Urban forests provide vital ecosystem functions like carbon sequestration, air pollution remediation, cooling, and habitat provisioning. When deposited on tree leaves, MPs can negatively impact leaf morphology, physiology, and biochemistry. Although several studies have investigated the MPs deposition on urban tree leaves, none explored the context of urbanization or forest fragmentation. Hence, the purpose of this project is to analyze the abundance and types of MPs on tree foliar surfaces across the Urban New England (UNE) project, a 120-km urbanization gradient beginning in urban Boston, MA. The results will reveal how both urbanization and forest fragmentation affect foliar MPs deposition. Laser-direct infrared spectroscopy (LD-IR) will be used to identify MPs polymer types and quantify MPs abundance. The hypotheses are: 1) MPs abundance increases as the degree of urbanization level increases, 2) MPs abundance is higher on forest edges than in forest interiors, and 3) MPs varieties reflect site characteristics–for instance, roadside samples have higher MPs abundance, particularly rubber from car tires and polyesters from clothing of pedestrians. This study is expected to provide new understanding on the spatial patterns of MPs deposition.

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