Nitrate and other water-quality characteristics, and nitrogen in the unsaturated zone, in the Red Willow and Hitchcock counties Special Protection Area, southwest Nebraska, 1993-95

Freshwater pathways and litter

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7698 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

María Cabrera Fernández

Keyword(s):

Water Quality ◽

Water Flow ◽

The European Union ◽

Marine Litter ◽

Data Field ◽

Different Types ◽

Protection Area ◽

Union Directive ◽

Special Protection

In recent years, there has been an increasing number of studies about freshwater micro-litter&#160; and how it ends up in the ocean.&#160;Nevertheless, macro-litter studies are not common in freshwater landscapes and yet less frequent among rivers. Almost always, research is focused on estuaries rather than rivers.The Asociaci&#243;n Paisaje Limpio has been developed, for some years, several studies as an affordable methodology to measure macro-litter in rivers throughout its.This way, our methodology is a combination between research and action. We don&#8217;t just tackle the macro-litter data field, but also identify specific litter problems along the river. We act through campaigns, agreement for companies and public administrations, etc.A need have been observed to combined different types of methodology to monitoring different types of rivers in order to be able to draw a conclusion:<ul><li>Visual counting: counting floating macro-litter on surface&#160;using RIMMEL app.</li> <li>By the riverbank,through a Citizen Science tool create by Asociaci&#243;n Paisaje Limpio and Asociaci&#243;n Vertidos Cero, called eLitter. Elitter&#160;is harmonized with other marine-litter methodologies (Marine litter watch, MARNOBA in Spain) and its litter classification is based on OSPAR protocol.</li> <li>If the riverbed&#160;is accessible eLitter is also used, but when is not accessible a dredge "Van Veen" have been used instead. This method has been applied in other marine-litter projects on seabed.</li> <li>Floating booms: it lets us know plastics rate in captured floating litter, and the water flow extrapolation.</li> <li>Nets from a kayak: to study the plastic concentration&#160; in the water column&#160;and the water flow extrapolation.</li> <li>Water quality general analysis:this analysis is useful to support the hypothesis about litter&#8217;s source in a river, mainly where the source is the sewage as happens with wet wipes, ear sticks...</li> </ul>-Case study: river Lagares, a spanish river in Pontevedra, Galicia.&#160;The river Lagares flows into the Atlantic, in a Special Protection Area (SPA), a designation under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds.The Asociaci&#243;n Paisaje Limpio is working on this river since 2018. We have applied the different methodologies explained before, in the river Lagares.

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