Analysis of Microplastics in Water and Biofilm Matrices in Metro River, East Java, Indonesia

Abstract

The Metro River flows from upstream to downstream across East Java to support several human activities such as household, toilets, or agriculture. The utilization of water rivers must be balanced with water quality monitoring so that the quality of the water can be monitored. This study aims to analyze the abundance of microplastic in the Metro River. Moreover, the water parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, flow velocity) were also measured. Sampling was carried out at three different stations, namely station 1 representing the agricultural activity area, station 2 representing the household activity area, and station 3 representing industrial activity. This study shows the abundance of microplastics in biofilm matrices and surrounding river water. The types of the microplastics are fibers, fragments, and films. The total abundances of microplastics in river water ranged from 0.8 -1.61 particle.mL -1 , while the biofilm matrices ranged from 7.4 to 9.5 particle.gram -1 . The results of water quality parameters at all stations are still relatively good compared to quality standards. To the best of our knowledge, this study was the first study that reports the microplastics in the water of and inside biofilm formed on Metro River.

Distribution of microplastics in Lusi Island, Sidoarjo, Indonesia

“…This value is approximately ±3°C from the surrounding air temperature (meets water quality standard). Temperature is an environmental factor that influences plastic fragmentation and increases the number of microplastics in aquatic environments [25,26,27]. The pH value in Lusi Island is 7.3; this affects the presence of microbes in the aquatic environment, including the life of bacteria attached to microplastics.…”

The Abundance of Microplastics in Sediment Siak River Pekanbaru City

“…The abundance of film-type microplastics dominates two sample points, namely sample points 1 and 3, while sample point 2 is dominated by the abundance of fragment-type microplastics with a larger amount when compared to the abundance of film at sample points 1 and 3 (Figure 3). Film-type microplastics originate from the degradation of plastic bags into smaller pieces (Sari et al, 2022;Tziourrou et al, 2021), this type of microplastics is thought to be sourced from household waste.…”