Title of Poster or Presentation

"Garbage" Science: Anthropogenic Litter Assemblage, Assessment, and Connections to Biotic Health in Illinois Streams

Submission Type

Oral/Paper Presentation

Degree Type

Masters

Discipline

Sciences

Department

Biology

Access Type

Open Access

Abstract or Description

Anthropogenic litter (i.e., trash; AL) is increasing in aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Rivers are both retention sites and conduits for AL. Because AL is diverse in material types, uses, sources, and mobility, developing management techniques to measure AL assemblage is a major challenge. We measured AL in 30-m reaches of streams across northeast Illinois. Streams were selected based on landscape-scale land uses (urban, agricultural, and forested). Reaches in urban watersheds have significantly higher densities of AL than agricultural watersheds (ANOVA, p=0.015). The study will inform policies and practices regarding stream ecosystem management.

Streaming Media

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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"Garbage" Science: Anthropogenic Litter Assemblage, Assessment, and Connections to Biotic Health in Illinois Streams

Anthropogenic litter (i.e., trash; AL) is increasing in aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Rivers are both retention sites and conduits for AL. Because AL is diverse in material types, uses, sources, and mobility, developing management techniques to measure AL assemblage is a major challenge. We measured AL in 30-m reaches of streams across northeast Illinois. Streams were selected based on landscape-scale land uses (urban, agricultural, and forested). Reaches in urban watersheds have significantly higher densities of AL than agricultural watersheds (ANOVA, p=0.015). The study will inform policies and practices regarding stream ecosystem management.