Microplastic in three urban estuaries, China

Microplastic Pollution in Inland Waters Focusing on Asia

“…In inland freshwaters of Wuhan, fiber, granule, film, and pellet were commonly detected, and fibers were most frequently detected accounting for 52.9-95.6% of the total plastics [32]. For microplastic samples from the four estuaries in China, fibers and granules were the more abundant [33,34]. Different patterns observed in these study areas suggest that the sources of the microplastics Fig.…”

“…In Yangtze Estuary, 0.5-1, 1-2.5, 2.5-5, and >5 mm size classes made up 67, 28.4, 4.4, and 0.2% of the total plastics, respectively [33]. In the estuary of Minjiang, Oujiang, and Jiaojiang, the smallest size class (0.5-1.0 mm) was also found the most abundant followed by the 1.0-2.0 mm size class, and these two size classes together accounted for over 70% of the total plastics [34]. However, among the four size classes (0.112-0.3, 0.3-0.5, 0.5-1.6, 1.6-5 mm), 0.5-1.6 mm microplastics were the most abundant from the majority of site in the Three Gorges Reservoir, which made up 30-57% of the total microplastics [22].…”

“…Microplastics were detected with concentrations ranged from 1,660 AE 639.1 to 8,925 AE 1,591 items/m 3 in surface water, and microplastic abundance was negatively correlated with the distance from the city center. Another two studies have also investigated the occurrence of microplastics in surface water from the estuaries of Yangtze, Jiaojiang, Oujiang, and Minjiang in China [33,34]. Results demonstrated that microplastics were present in high abundance in these transitional zones between rivers and the sea and suggested that rivers are important sources of microplastics to marine environment.…”

“…In the freshwaters of Wuhan, microplastics were found to be transparent or in blue, purple, red, or other colors, and colored microplastics, accounting for 50.4-86.9% of the total microplastics, were more abundant than transparent ones [32]. From the estuaries of Jiaojiang, Oujiang, and Minjiang, microplastics were divided into transparent, white, black, and colored groups, and colored microplastics were identified as the most dominant [34]. It may be interesting to investigate further how color affects the environmental fate and ecological effects of microplastics.…”

Micro- and Nanoplastic Pollution of Freshwater and Wastewater Treatment Systems

“…Marine data from the 1990s indicate that plastic litter in the Japanese coast increased by a factor of 10 every 2-3 years [75]. Further, microplastic pollution has been reported in coastlines of Japan [9] and Korea [53,58] and in urban estuaries in China [100]. In this context, the region may present useful opportunities for studying these plastic particles in freshwaters that have highly populated and industrialised catchments, but the recent literature considering this is limited.…”