Investigation of microplastic pollution in river Alaknanda stretch of Uttarakhand

Chauhan, J. S.; Semwal, Deepti; Nainwal, Mamta; Badola, Neha; Thapliyal, Prashant

doi:10.1007/s10668-021-01388-y

Cited by 40 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Thirteen articles have investigated the presence of MPs in various sources of water, including lakes (5), rivers (7), groundwater (3), and glaciers (snow and stream; 1). The samples were collected from depths ranging from 20 cm to 3–5 m using plankton nets with different mesh sizes (20, 100, 120, 300, 333, and 335 m). ,− Some studies used a stainless-steel bucket and sieved stainless-steel mesh, , while Napper et al used a hand-operated bilge pump with a targeted MPs size range (>300 μm) to collect river surface water from a depth of 0.5 m from the Ganga River, which was then filtered through a 330 μm nylon mesh. The amount of water sampled was determined by attaching a flow meter to the manta trawl net.…”

Section: Sample Collection Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in Freshwater Ecosystems of India: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

Neelavannan,

Sen

2023

ACS Omega

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Microplastics (MPs)�i.e., plastic particles less than 5 mm in length�are becoming a growing environmental concern due to their potential ecotoxicological impacts on aquatic ecosystems. In India, MPs contamination is a significantly growing problem due to increased plastic production as well as its low rate of recycling. As a result, MPs research work in India has gained considerable attention in the last two decades. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of the existing scientific literature on MPs in freshwater ecosystems (e.g., lakes and rivers) of India. A bibliographical search was used to conduct the literature review across a number of databases including ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate. We found that in comparison to the marine ecosystem the source, transport, and fate of MPs in freshwater ecosystems of India are still underexplored, and we found only 18 relevant papers. This review work reveals that there is no standard procedure for separating MPs from water and sediment samples, and as a result, comparing the results was a challenging task. The larger MPs (>500 μm) in water and sediments were identified most commonly using the attenuated total reflection (ATR) Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy technique (ATR-FTIR), whereas smaller-sized MPs (<500 μm) were identified using FTIR fitted with a confocal microscope, also known as μ-FTIR imaging or chemical imaging. We found that white-colored fibers and fragments of polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE) were the most common polymer types in the freshwater ecosystems of India. Although research on MPs in freshwater ecosystems of India has gained momentum over the past decade, the literature review reveals a limited understanding of the impact of MPs' weathering patterns, the role of biofouling, and the role of water hyacinths on freshwater ecosystem services in India. Furthermore, the fluxes of MPs to the Indian oceans are not constrained, and atmospheric transport in high-altitude mountains, which have already been made fragile by climate change, has not been fully investigated. This study, therefore, calls for additional assessments of MPs in freshwater ecosystems�particularly in the central parts of India.

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Section: Sample Collection Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in Freshwater Ecosystems of India: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

Neelavannan,

Sen

2023

ACS Omega

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“…S1). Fiber was the dominant shape of MPs in water and sediment of several important rivers worldwide including Ciwalengke River in Indonesia (Alam et al, 2019), Pearl River in China (Lin et al, 2018), Haihe River in China (Liu et al, 2021), and Alaknanda River in India (Chauhan et al, 2021).…”

Section: J O U R N a L P R E -P R O O Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The dominancy of the MP particles may be attributed to the sources of pollution available in the river (Chauhan et al, 2021). Domestic washings, farm equipment, fishing nets and gear, atmospheric deposition and urban runoff, which includes debris from tyres among other types of plastics, are also potential sources of plastic fibers and fragments (Cesa et al, 2017;de Jesus Piñon-Colin et al, 2020;Dris et al, 2016).…”

Section: J O U R N a L P R E -P R O O Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of land use on microplastic pollution in a major boundary waterway: The Arvand River

Soltani

Keshavarzi

Moore

et al. 2022

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Microplastics research in India has skewed chiefly towards the coasts (Veerasingam et al 2020;Amrutha et al 2021), and terrestrial water bodies have received less attention. However, a few studies on microplastic pollution in riverine sediments from Indian rivers exist (Sarkar et al 2019;Amrutha and Warrier 2020;Patel et al 2020;Ram and Kumar 2020;Chauhan et al 2021;Singh et al 2021;and Tsering et al 2021, Table 1). Besides, there is little knowledge on the behaviour of MPs with sedimentary and organic properties in these river systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of pollution and risks associated with microplastics in the riverine sediments of the Western Ghats: a heritage site in southern India

Amrutha

Shajikumar

Warrier

et al. 2022

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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There is very little knowledge on microplastic pollution in the Western Ghats (WG), a heritage site in southwest India. To address this, we have studied the spatiotemporal variations of sedimentary microplastics (MPs) from the River Sharavathi, a pristine river in the Western Ghats (WG), southern India. The rich biodiversity in the region makes it relevant to analyse the distribution of this emerging pollutant that is causing harm to the biota and the ecosystem. We analysed the sedimentological and carbon content (organic and inorganic) of these sediments and explored their relationship with MPs. Finally, risk assessment indices such as the Pollution Load Index (PLI), the Polymer Hazard Index (PHI), and the Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI) were calculated to detect the levels of plastic pollution. The concentration of MPs ranged from 2.5 to 57.5 pieces/kg and 0 to 15 pieces/kg during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, respectively. The dip in the MPs’ abundance during the post-monsoon season was due to the extremely high rainfall in the river basin during July–August 2019, which would have entrained the sedimentary MPs and transported them to the coast/Arabian Sea. Smaller MPs (0.3–1 mm) were more abundant than the larger MPs (1–5 mm), mainly due to the breakdown of sedimentary plastics by physical processes. Fragments, films, foams, and fibres were the main categories of MPs, and the main polymers were polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polypropylene. No significant relationship was observed between the sedimentological properties and microplastics, which may be due to the different physical properties of sediments and microplastics. The PLI, PHI, and PERI indices suggest different contamination levels in the river basin. Based on the PLI scores, all the samples belong to the hazardous level I suggesting minor risk category, and the risk of microplastic pollution falls under the high to hazardous risk category based on the PHI values. The PERI value ranged from 160 to 440 and 40 to 2240 during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons, respectively. The risk assessment in a region known for its rich biodiversity is crucial, as the data can be used by the district administration to mitigate plastic pollution.

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Investigation of microplastic pollution in river Alaknanda stretch of Uttarakhand

Cited by 40 publications

References 43 publications

Microplastics in Freshwater Ecosystems of India: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

Microplastics in Freshwater Ecosystems of India: Current Trends and Future Perspectives

Effect of land use on microplastic pollution in a major boundary waterway: The Arvand River

Assessment of pollution and risks associated with microplastics in the riverine sediments of the Western Ghats: a heritage site in southern India

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