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Volume 2
Journal of Environmental Research
Page 86
JOINT EVENT
July 26-27, 2018 Rome, Italy
&
6
th
Edition of International Conference on
Water Pollution & Sewage Management
4
th
International Conference on
Pollution Control & Sustainable Environment
Assessment of the effects of physical disturbances in simple micro-universes by measurement of DOC-
levels
Zilinskaite Nemira
1
and
Calle Edo Vargas Javier
2
1
University of Nottingham, UK
2
University of Uppsala, Sweden
A
n increasing problem with today's way of living is the rising of anthropologically influenced pollutions. Quite recently has
research been directed towards the effects and consequences these disturbancesmay cause within freshwater environments,
which has inspired this study. Hoping to assess the effects of different disturbances that are likely to occur in lakes, DOC-levels
(dissolved organic carbon) were measured to get an idea of what might happen to the microbial ecology when these are
introduced. The research was conducted by introducing a heavy reduction of bacteria, microplastics, SDS (sodium dodecyl
sulfate) and microplastics and SDS together to enclosed environments. The purpose of this, and also the aim of this study is
to find out of DOC-levels were affected, if a difference could be observed between exposure to microplastics +SDS versus
microplastics and SDS alone, and to assess the recovery after each disturbance. Following exposure DOC-levels remained
generally unchanged in the reduced bacteria and microplastics mesocosms, whereas these levels were heavily reduced after
exposure to SDS. It was also found that SDS+ microplastics required a shorter exposure time before mortality was observed
than SDS alone, and resulted in a much higher mortality rate than microplastics alone.
zilinskaite.nemira@gmail.comJ Environ Res 2018, Volume: 2