Microplastics in South African Catchments: Olifants and Breede Systems

Conrad Alton-John Sparks's dataset documents concentrations, characteristics, and risk assessments of microplastics from the Olifants and Breede river systems in South Africa's Western Cape. The data likely contains measurements from water and sediment samples across 18 sites per system, collected during wet and dry seasons. Laboratory analysis categorizes particles by type, color, size, and polymer composition, with accompanying environmental parameters.

Use Cases

• Assessing ecological risk of microplastics based on polymer type and concentration data.
• Modeling microplastic transport and fate using data from catchment, estuary, and coastal sites.
• Identifying pollution sources and sinks by correlating particle characteristics with site parameters.
• Evaluating seasonal variation in microplastic concentrations from wet and dry season sampling.

Strengths

• Dataset employs standardized laboratory methods, including FTIR-ATR spectrometry for polymer identification.
• Sampling design includes 18 sites per river system with seasonal replication, suggesting systematic coverage.
• Cross-platform presence on figshare indicates established sharing and a CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Metadata is incomplete: column names, row counts, and file formats are not specified in the provided sources.
• The dataset describes proposed research with a future 'last updated' date of 2026-03 -24, indicating it may be a plan or in-progress work rather than finalized data.
• Organization and specific geographic coordinates for sampling sites are not provided.

Provenance

Source

Conrad Alton-John Sparks

Collection Method

Field sampling of water and sediment, followed by laboratory filtration, microscopic categorization, and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy.

Time Range

Samples planned for collection during wet and dry seasons (specific years not stated).

Freshness

Last updated: 2026-03-24 06:46:13

Geography

Olifants and Breede river catchments, estuaries, and coastal areas, Western Cape, South Africa.