BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A new study from University of Central Florida researchers found microplastics in the air are “raining” down into the Indian River Lagoon. The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environments.
UCF Pegasus Professor of Biology, Dr. Linda Walters, said earlier water sampling estimated a significant amount of plastic already present in the lagoon.
She estimates there are 1.4 trillion pieces of microplastics in the lagoon. She added, Scientists have spent years trying to figure out where it’s coming from. UCF researchers determined a primary source is atmospheric deposition—particles in the air that fall back to Earth. Those particles include microplastics, and the issue is not unique to the Indian River Lagoon.
However, Dr. Walters stated that some characteristics make the IRL especially prone to accumulating plastics. “We started trying to figure out why New Smyrna, in the northern IRL, has so much plastic. The only thing we could really attribute it to is that we have about 10 million visitors per year. And the visitors are the ones who use single-use plastics.”
Limited water movement is another factor that enables plastics to accumulate over time.
“There is very limited circulation in many places in the lagoon, the plastics that get in the water are most likely going to get trapped there,” said Walters. She told us, those trapped plastics don’t just stay in the water—they can move through the ecosystem and into people.
“It’s going to be in us. It is in us. I mean, there’s just there’s just no question about that. It’s a matter of is it making us sick or not? And that has not been officially documented.”
The study contributes to increasing evidence that airborne microplastics are an underrecognized source of pollution.primary
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