Sources and distribution of microplastics in China's largest inland lake – Qinghai Lake

Xiong, Xiong; Zhang, Kai; Chen, Xianchuan; Shi, Huahong; Luo, Ze; Wu, Chenxi

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.12.081

Cited by 492 publications

(125 citation statements)

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“…In the Pantanal, the population density is very low (Pott andPott 2004, Junk andCunha 2005), and economic activity restricted mostly to extensive cattle ranching, fisheries, and tourism (Wantzen, da Cunha et al 2008). Plastic waste from these activities constitutes a potential local source of microplastics (Ferreira, Barletta et al 2018, Xiong, Zhang et al 2018. Alternatively, or concurrently, microplastics might be transported by the Cuiabá River into the Pantanal from the Cuiabá urban area.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastics pollution in the South American Pantanal

Faria

Girard

Nardes

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Microplastics represent an emerging global threat to freshwater ecosystems and studies in floodplains are still incipient. Microplastics in the Pantanal’s affluent and floodplains were sampled close to their potential urban sources and in the Pantanal lowlands. A 68 μm mesh size plankton net, with a 150 ml collection flask was used for sampling. The flask content was filtered over a 0.45μm Whatman paper, 47 mm in diameter, and examined under a stereomicroscope at 45X to identify and count microplastics (expressed as n100L-1). Microplastic sizes were determined by image microscopy. The average microplastic size was 192±142 μm and it was not significantly different in the urban tributaries (206±158 μm) than in the Pantanal (181±131 μm). The average±std microplastic concentration was 9.6±8.3, ranging from 1 to 31 n100L-1. Fibers, fragments, pellets, and XPS (closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam) particles represented respectively 50%, 19%, 22% and 9% of the total microplastics. Microplastics concentrations were higher in the urban tributaries (19.9±5.8 n100L-1) than in the Pantanal lowlands (4.5±2.5 n100L-1). Fibers were always the most important fraction, followed by fragments. In the lowlands, pellets were scarce and XPS were absent. Comparison between microplastic composition in the floodplain and the urban areas suggest that pellets are transported from the urban area to the Pantanal, while microfibers and fragments could both be transported from the urban areas and have a local origin. These results indicate that microplastics are contaminating the Pantanal and its affluents and eventually can affect the local fauna. More research is needed to understand the extent and possible implications regarding the contamination by microplastics of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems of the Pantanal.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The average concentration of fragments (1.2±1.1 n100L -1 ) is also lower in the Pantanal than in the urban area by a factor of about 2.7. Plastic waste from tourism is a likely source of secondary micro-fragments (Xiong, Zhang et al 2018), but, as for microfibers, transport from the urban area cannot be ruled out as a potential source.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics pollution in the South American Pantanal

Faria

Girard

Nardes

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…Notably, recent studies reveal that ubiquitous microplastics have been detected in many inland waters (Zhang et al, 2017a), including a mega coastal city -Shanghai (Peng et al, 2017a(Peng et al, , 2017b, the largest central city -Wuhan (Wang et al, 2017), Taihu Lake (Su et al, 2016), largest inland lake -Qinghai Lake (Xiong et al, 2018), even remote lakes in the Tibet plateau (Zhang et al, 2016), occurring in significantly higher abundance than the oceans, which has raised growing concern.…”

Section: Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical review on the sources and instruments of marine microplastics and prospects on the relevant management in China

2018

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The world's oceans are suffering a constant and unprecedented accumulation of emerging plastic contaminants known as microplastics with a particle diameter smaller than 5mm. Microplastics exhibit a widespread distribution in various habitats from land to the oceans, and even reach the most remote regions - the deep sea and the polar, receiving attention exponentially in the past few years. Owing to their small size, marine species risk getting ingested and entangled in microplastics, causing suffocation, starvation, physical trauma or damage from chemicals, which poses vast and growing threats to biodiversity and the food web. This review article focuses on the various sources attributed to marine microplastics, the latest international, regional and national countermeasures to combat marine litter, as well as the status quo of microplastics pollution, legislation and regulations in China, and furthermore provides improving proposals/solutions on key research gaps, governance and management for future environmental control and policymaking in China.

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“…Contamination of plastic products has attracted intense attention with its wide application, although it has brought great convenience and benefit to people's lives along with the realization of large scale manufacture of the organic chemical merchandise in the 1950s (Phuong et al, ; Xiong et al, ). Global plastic production has increased dramatically from 1.5 million tons in the 1950s to 348 million tons in 2017, and 29.4% of this output was contributed by China, and this growth trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future (Plastic Europe, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lakes play a key role in regulating the surrounding climate, accumulating floods, and maintaining ecological diversity, and sediment at the bottom of lakes affects water quality through the release of nitrogen, phosphorus nutrients, and organic matter (Driedger, Dürr, Mitchell, & Cappellen, ). Studies have explained the existence of microplastics in many lakes and sediments, such as Lake Ontario in North America and the urban surface water in Wuhan, Lake Hovsgol, Qinghai Lake and even remote lakes in the Tibet Plateau, China (Corcoran et al, ; Free et al, ; Wang, Ndungu, Li, & Wang, ; Xiong et al, ; Zhang et al, ). The study of plastic granules in surface water in Wuhan revealed that the quantity of plastic in this area reached 8,925 ± 1,519 n/m 3 , which exceeded some studies about it at home and abroad (Wang et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in the sediment of Lake Ulansuhai of Yellow River Basin, China

Qin

Wang

et al. 2019

Water Environment Research

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As an emerging organic pollutant, microplastics in the ocean have been the subject of much study. However, there is a lack of research on freshwater environments, notably in sediment, China. Microplastics contamination in sediment of Lake Ulansuhai has been investigated in the study, and its concentration range was from 24 ± 7 to 14 ± 3 n/kg. Further, it exhibited a difference in spatial distribution with high content in the north zone of the lake far from the entrance of the drainage canal and it has a decreasing tendency with the flow from north to south in lake. Colored plastic particles acted as the dominated pollution type, and more than 79.69% of microplastics were smaller than 2 mm in size, existed as the form of fibers. FTIR results mirrored that the main types of microplastics were polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride. Results obtained from SEM/EDS showed that there were cracks, holes, and irregular curls on the surface of it, and these microplastics may provide attachment sites for other pollutants. The appearance of metallic elements such as Al, Ni, and Fe showed that microplastics and other pollutants in Lake Ulansuhai have a combined effect, which may aggravate the degree of pollution in the lake. © 2019 Water Environment Federation • Practitioner points• Microplastics were found in the sediment of Lake Ulansuhai with a spatial distribution characteristic. • Abundance and morphological characteristics such as shape, color, and size have been analyzed in the paper. • Polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride were the main types of microplastics in the sediment detected by FTIR. • There were metallic elements combined on the surface of microplastics increased risk of combined pollution.

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Sources and distribution of microplastics in China's largest inland lake – Qinghai Lake

Cited by 492 publications

References 50 publications

Microplastics pollution in the South American Pantanal

Microplastics pollution in the South American Pantanal

A critical review on the sources and instruments of marine microplastics and prospects on the relevant management in China

Microplastics in the sediment of Lake Ulansuhai of Yellow River Basin, China

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