Microplastics in surface water and sediments of Chongming Island in the Yangtze Estuary, China

Abstract

Background: The Yangtze Estuary acts as gateways where microplastics transport from freshwater into marine environments, with one of the largest discharge volumes in the world. The occurrence of microplastics in surface water and sediments of the Yangtze Estuary has been reported. However, little is known about microplastics in and around Chongming Island in the estuary. In this study, the distribution of microplastics in surface water and sediments of Chongming Island was investigated and compared in different environmental medium.Results: Abundances of microplastics in surface water and sediments were in the ranges of 0-259 items m − 3 and 10-60 items kg − 1 dry weight, respectively. Microplastics were more abundant in the surface water of the Yangtze River shores than in the inland rivers (p < 0.01). Proportions in fiber form in surface water and sediment were 33% and 67%; and those in fragment form were 39% and 24%. Most particles (> 72%) were < 1 mm in the longest dimension; 65% were white and 30% were transparent. Of the 11 compositions identified, polyethylene, polypropylene, and α-cellulose predominated in both phases.Conclusion: This is the first study to focus on microplastics in inland watercourses on Chongming Island and along the Yangtze River's shores in both phases. There were differences between the island and estuary in composition and density due to the distinct vertical mixing processes. The in situ filtration of surface water (100 L) sampling method was well employed in various freshwater environments and free of plastic materials in front of the filter, analysis results of which provided an important baseline reference for evaluating microplastic pollution in the Yangtze Estuary. Publisher's NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Global patterns for the spatial distribution of floating microfibers: Arctic Ocean as a potential accumulation zone

“…The so-called source-to-sea continuum has been widely discussed to understand how the environmental gradient established among rivers, coasts and open ocean build the transboundary nature of MFs. Examples of MF sources are related to the release by washing machines and the use and maintenance of fishing nets, as observed worldwide, especially in underdeveloped countries (Wu et al, 2019;Li et al, 2020). This emphasizes that the widespread global pollution is connected by international impacts (Lima et al, 2014(Lima et al, , 2020Lebreton et al, 2017).…”

The Potential Role of Membrane Technology in the Removal of Microplastics from Wastewater

“…Most reports on the presence of microplastics in water are not detailed and there is need to conduct more study in understanding the fate. It is also important to conduct more work to study the drinking water that originates from surface water where microplastic dominates [89,90]. Most wastewater treatment plant lack the capacity to completely remove microplastic from water.…”

“…This lapse calls for the development of a more robust technique that is more sensitive and sophisticated in characterizing microplastics because some present studies are pointing attention towards the presence of plastic in the environment at the nano levels (nanoplastics). Study on microplastic is still limited because there are questions to be answered such as the distribution of microplastic in the environment and factors that affect their distribution, transport pathways, establishment of an acceptable method of analysis and relevance and extent of impacts microplastics have on the environment and life [89,91]. Although there are reports on the effect of microplastics on marine animals and plants but these reports are not detailed with scanty information on the effect on human, there is need to understand the particle toxicity of microplastics on human health and further study on aquatic organisms [92,93].…”

Synthesis of dominant plastic microfibre prevalence and pollution control feasibility in Chinese freshwater environments

“…Several patterns of microplastics abundance have been documented in major Chinese river basins since 2014, such as the Pearl River , Yangtze River Li et al, 2020;, Yellow River (Han et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2019), Dongting Lake Wang et al, 2018;Yin et al, 2020), and Poyang Lake (Liu et al, 2019c;. Given the substantial and growing industrial system and the market demand for plastic materials in China, the establishment and improvement of relevant management of plastic production and disposal in China may have beneficial impacts on mitigating the global fluvial microplastic discharges .…”