Plastic debris is thought to be widespread in freshwater ecosystems globally(1). However, a lack of comprehensive and comparable data makes rigorous assessment of its distribution challenging(2,3). Here we present a standardized cross-national survey that assesses the abundance and type of plastic debris (>250 mu m) in freshwater ecosystems. We sample surface waters of 38 lakes and reservoirs, distributed acros...
Plastic debris is widespread in freshwater ecosystems, but a rigorous assessment of its global distribution has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive and comparable data. We performed the first standardized global survey of lakes to assess the quantity and type of plastics (>250μm). We included 38 lakes located in 23 different countries distributed across five continents, spanning different environmental gra...