Microplastic pollution from past to present in freshwater ecosystems: Susurluk basin case

When evaluated on a global scale, microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems has become an important problem in recent years. Most of the studies on this pollution have been carried out in marine environments, but considering the transport routes, the investigation of plastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems has become an important issue. Historical data on the accumulation of plastic use in aquatic ecosystems, which increased with the industrial revolution in many parts of the world, is limited. In this study, the accumulation of microplastic pollution over time in Bursa region, where human activities and related pollutant production is high, was investigated by using paleolimnological approaches in two selected points, Uluabat Lake and Kocaçay Delta. Two short core samples were taken from the bottom sediments of both sampling points and these sediments were used for both dating and determination of microplastics deposited from top to bottom. It has been determined that there is Microplastic accumulation in Uluabat Lake starting from the 1960s. Especially in the lake where fiber dominance is high, this accumulation is thought to be related to the intense fishing activities. In the samples analyzed in the Kocaçay Delta, many different types of microplastics have been accumulated since 2014, although its dating was not as good as in the lake system due to the continuous mixing of the sediment in the Delta. In this study, in which the temporal profile of microplastic pollution in a freshwater ecosystem is researched for the first time in our country, it has shown that microplastics can be used as a good indicator in paleolimnological approaches, and in this way, it has revealed that an important development can be achieved both in understanding the plastic accumulation profile in the past and in providing data about the protection methods that can be taken for the future.