Depth Profiles of Microplastics in Sediment Cores from Two Mangrove Forests in Northern Vietnam

Abstract

Plastics are essential materials that play critical roles in people’s lives in the modern world. However, plastic pollution in the ocean has become a critical environmental problem due to the fact of its durability and long life span. In the present study, we analyze the contamination of microplastics in sediment cores from mangrove forests of the Red River Delta and Tien Yen Bay in Northern Vietnam. The results showed that the concentration of microplastics in sediment cores ranged from 0 to 4941 particles/kg, with four types of microplastics: microfiber, microfragment, microfoam, and microfilm. Microplastics were not observed in sediment samples lower than 65 and 70 cm core depth in sediment cores from the Tien Yen Bay and Red River Delta. The microplastic concentration in sediment cores from the Red River Delta was significantly higher than those of Tien Yen Bay, reflecting the influence of anthropogenic activities on microplastics pollution. The present results highlight that the accumulation of microplastics may have occurred a long time ago and tends to increase in the future. Further investigation on microplastic accumulation rates, sources of microplastics, and reducing plastic pollution is necessary to minimize the impacts of microplastic pollution on aquatic life and the environment.

Contamination of microplastics in mangrove sediment cores from Lach Huyen area, Hai Phong city, Vietnam

“…The present study did not detect other common resins such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), acrylic, and polyurethane (PU) in all sediment cores. The polymer composition of microplastics in Lach Huyen sediment has similarities with the previous report in the Red River estuary and Tien Yen bay, Vietnam [25].…”

Microplastics in mangrove sediments at Maeklong river mouth, Samut Songkhram province

“…The microplastics found in this study were mostly in fiber form, as in previous studies in mangrove core sediments in southern Thailand, Hangzhou Bay, China, and Northern Vietnam (Jingjing Luu Viet et al, 2021;. Moreover, many previous studies also suggested that the fiber type is detected as a major shape of microplastics in mangrove environments (biota: (Hastuti et al, 2019;Klangnurak & Chunniyom, 2020), sediments: (Mohamed Nor & Obbard, 2014;Wang et al, 2020;Zuo et al, 2020)).…”

“…M icroplastics are om nipresent in our environm ent for long tim e. Many researchers found the evidence of historical changes in microplastic deposition. Sediment cores are providing insight long-term microplastic record in ocean (Matsuguma et al, 2017;Uddin et al, 2021), lacustrine (Dong et al, 2020;Turner et al, 2019), coastal (Asadi et al, 2019), estuary (Willis et al, 2017), and mangrove (Luu Viet et al, 2021). Especially, Mangrove forest have an potential for trap marine litter (Martin et al, 2019).…”

Centennial Records of Microplastics in Lake Cores in Huguangyan Maar Lake, China

“…We compared the HML sedimentary microplastic abundance with results in the 22 sediment records after 1980 globally (Figure and Table S8). The HML microplastic abundance was 200.9 ± 147.5 items g –1 after 1980, which was much higher than the abundances in Xiamen Bay (71.5 ± 64.6 items g –1 ), Wuliangsuhai Lake (5.0 ± 2.1 items g –1 ), and other regions in China. ,,,− The abundance in HML was also significantly higher than the levels in Lake Saimaa, Finland (4.4 ± 1.1 items g –1 ), Jinhae Bay, South Korea (2.6 ± 2.4 items g –1 ), and other global sediments. ,− One of the reasons could be the geographical characteristics of the sampling area and the hydrodynamic influences in water bodies. , The microplastic particles can be swiftly transported by ocean currents and tides, impeding effective sediment settlement . However, HML is isolated from any external water body, and the lower hydrodynamic condition facilitates stable and rapid microplastic accumulation.…”