The plastic underground – Exploring the mechanisms controlling the fate and transport of microplastics in the subsurface

While there have been advances in understanding the above ground plastic cycle, there is still a substantial lack of understanding the sources and activation mechanisms of plastic pollution affecting the entry, fate, transport, transformation and impact of microplastics into soils, riverbeds, sediment and groundwater aquifers.

We here present the initial outcomes of integrated field and laboratory analytical experimental approaches and mathematical modelling studies to provide mechanistic understanding of the overall magnitude as well as hot spots (and hot moments) of microplastic entry into subsurface ecosystems and their transport and transformation pathways. Our model results highlight that a large proportion (>95%) of all mismanaged plastic waste emitted since the 1950s is temporarily stored in river basins and able to enter subsurface ecosystems in the long-term. Using multi-scale modelling studies in combination with artificial river simulators (flumes) and laboratory column experiments we evidence that hyporheic exchange represents a preferential input mechanism for smaller and lighter microplastics into streambed sediments and underlying groundwater ecosystems. This finding maps directly onto field experimental findings from our global monitoring programmes which identified distinct hotspots of microplastic accumulation. Soil and streambed sediment columns were deployed to explore the controls on microplastic transport once they have entered the subsurface, highlighting that in particular intermittent pulsed hydraulic forcing increases the potential for fast particle transport.