Microplastics in the Freshwater and Earthbound Conditions: Prevalence, Destinies, Impacts, and Supportable Arrangements

An increasing number of researches have been published on MPs' different freshwater ecosystems worldwide, including lakes, rivers, estuaries, and wetlands in both waters and sediments. Although the literature on plastics in freshwater is growing, data are globally disjointed about the evidence of concentrations of MPs and impacts on environmental freshwater matrices (Cera et al. 2020). Besides, the heterogeneity of sampling protocols, methodologies, techniques, and measurement units among different researches makes it challenging to compare results and produce a complete picture of the existing state of understanding [1]. Another critical factor is that MPs < 100 ?m (SMPs) are often overlooked; less than 20% of reported studies on freshwater environments reported MPs below 20 ?m. The sampling and analytical procedures are strictly connected to detecting plastic particles sizes >100 ?m. Consequently, most of the reported studies could have undervalued the concentration of SMPs. Thus, improvement in detection technologies and pre-treatments methods could modify the final mean amount of MPs in freshwater environments