Microplastic pollution presents an increasing danger to the environment. Its sources and impacts have been heavily researched within in the last decade. A major origin is tyre-wear from cars, being washed into the environment via surface runoff. In urban areas, this runoff is sometimes captured in stormwater management systems where it infiltrates to (shallow) groundwater.

Aim of the thesis is to investigate the sediment of such stormwater infiltration systems and analyse whether they present a sink or just a pathway for microplastics.

In a diverse mixture of tasks like soil sampling, lab-work and data analysis, the influence of different factors governing microplastic concentration and type in different swales across Freiburg will be evaluated. Possible influencing factors might be building-ages and/or landuse in the area draining to the swales.

Natalie Orlowski, Felicia Linke and Jonas Pyschik

Jonas Pyschik jonas.pyschik@hydrology.uni-freiburg.de Tel. +49 (0)761 / 203-3519

Fieldwork, Laboratory-work, Data-Analysis

German or English

Description of the stormwater systems in relation to biocides:

• Bork, M., Lange, J., Graf-Rosenfellner, M. et al. Urban storm water infiltration systems are not reliable sinks for biocides: evidence from column experiments. Sci Rep 11, 7242 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86387-9

On Microplastics in soils:

• Weber, CJ, Weihrauch, C, Opp, C, Chifflard, P. Investigating microplastic dynamics in soils: Orientation for sampling strategies and sample pre-procession. Land Degrad Dev. 2021; 32: 270– 284. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.3676