MICROPLASTICS IN FRESHWATER MUSSELS FROM NORTHERN NEW YORK AND THE ADIRONDACK PARK

The issue of microplastic in the environment is an emerging problem that has gained a lot of attention recently. Overtime, UV and mechanical degradation causes the macroplastic breakdown into the smaller microplastic pieces. We find microplastics everywhere in soil, freshwater systems, and marine habitats, as well as in many organisms from plants to humans. Atmospheric transport of microplastic distribution results in deposition of these pollutants in remote and sparsely inhabited areas. We hypothesize that even in rural and less densely populated areas like northern New York and the Adirondacks Mountains microplastics will be present in freshwater mussels like Elliptio complanata. These filter feeding organisms are susceptible to retaining not only fine sediment in their gills and digestive tracks, but also microplastics.

We sampled ten individuals from ten localities in northern New York and the Adirondack Park. The samples were weighed and frozen. The soft body was extracted from the shell and digested in Fenton’s reagent. After the soft body degradation was complete, the microplastic pieces were isolated with a 63µm filter and dyed with a combination of nile red, evans blue, and calcofluor-white. Microplastics were examined, identified, and counted in Neubauer cells. Preliminary results of the digestion process have shown that microplastics can be detected in softbodies of the freshwater mussel Elliptio complanata. This confirms our hypothesis that the deposition of air-borne microplastics has introduced these pollutants into the freshwater ecosystems of the Adirondacks Mountains. Next steps will include further sample digestion and quantification of these plastics.