Freshwaters are impacted by many pollutants. Scientists and resource managers need to reliably detect and monitor these pollutants by employing appropriate sampling techniques to quantify and mitigate their impacts. Emerging freshwater contaminants such as microplastics are difficult to monitor as effective sampling techniques have not been fully developed and lack standardization. Here, we propose a novel method, adapted from stream invertebrate kick-net sampling, which can be employed for long-term, standardized microplastic monitoring. We hypothesized that invertebrate kick-net sampling would be effective at collecting microplastics, capturing higher microplastic concentrations than standard microplastic sampling, due to collecting suspended and benthic microplastics simultaneously. We sampled 28 streams for microplastics using standard drift and sediment microplastic collection methods and invertebrate kick-netting. As predicted, kick-netting captured microplastics at higher concentrations than conventional sampling, regardless of whether values were expressed per volume of water (as in drift samples), per kg of sediment or per area sampled (as in benthic samples). Consequently, kick-net sampling has the potential to be a time- and cost-efficient tool for monitoring microplastic pollution. We recommend the employment of invertebrate kick-netting as a new, standardized means to investigate and routinely monitor microplastic concentrations worldwide. This would generate a more robust dataset of global freshwater microplastic pollution, making it possible to answer unresolved questions pertaining to changes in microplastic pollution profiles. Standardized, long-term records of microplastic concentrations in freshwaters would also allow a more accurate assessment of the ecological risks of microplastic pollution. Finally, long-term microplastic data could be used to inform much-needed regulatory decisions pertaining to microplastic pollution.

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旧方法的大胆新用途：使用无脊椎动物踢网改善对自来水中微塑料污染的监测

淡水受到许多污染物的影响。科学家和资源管理者需要采用适当的采样技术来可靠地检测和监测这些污染物，以量化和减轻其影响。由于有效的采样技术尚未完全开发且缺乏标准化，微塑料等新兴淡水污染物难以监测。在这里，我们提出了一种改编自溪流无脊椎动物踢网采样的新方法，可用于长期、标准化的微塑料监测。我们假设无脊椎动物踢网采样可以有效地收集微塑料，由于同时收集悬浮微塑料和底栖微塑料，因此比标准微塑料采样捕获更高的微塑料浓度。我们使用标准漂流和沉积物微塑料收集方法和无脊椎动物踢网，对 28 条溪流进行了微塑料采样。正如预测的那样，踢网捕获的微塑料浓度高于传统采样，无论数值是按水体积（如漂流样品）、每公斤沉积物还是按采样面积（如底栖样品）表示。因此，踢网采样有可能成为监测微塑料污染的一种省时且经济高效的工具。我们建议使用无脊椎动物踢网作为一种新的标准化手段来调查和定期监测全球微塑料浓度。这将生成更可靠的全球淡水微塑料污染数据集，从而有可能回答与微塑料污染状况变化有关的未解决问题。淡水中微塑料浓度的标准化长期记录也有助于更准确地评估微塑料污染的生态风险。最后，长期微塑料数据可用于为急需的有关微塑料污染的监管决策提供信息。