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

Abstract

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.

Occurrence and Distribution of Microplastics from Nepal’s Second Largest Lake

“…2 ). Previous freshwater studies like Dongting Lake (Jiang et al, 2018 ), Taihu Lake (Su et al, 2016 ), Poyang Lake (Yuan et al, 2019 ), Red Hills Lake (Gopinath et al, 2020 ), Lake Ulanshuhai (Qin et al, 2020 ), and Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Baldwin et al, 2020 ) also reported fibers as the dominant type of microplastic. The greater abundance of fibers in Phewa Lake sediments can be linked to domestic waste input, cage fish culture and fishing, washing clothes at the bank of the lake, the use of ropes in boasts, and cigarette butts lying on the shore.…”

Adsorption of Different Pollutants by Using Microplastic with Different Influencing Factors and Mechanisms in Wastewater: A Review

“…The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https: //www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/nano12132256/s1, Figure S1: The process of forming large plastics into microplastics, Figure S2: Schematic representation of the six sorption mechanisms, Table S1: Classification of microplastics, Table S2: Surface area parameters of different adsorbents, Table S3: Adsorption mechanism of organic pollutants, Table S4: Adsorption mechanism of inorganic pollutants, and Table S5: Adsorption mechanism of other pollutants [128][129][130][131][132][133][134].…”

Sediment phosphate release flux under hydraulic disturbances in the shallow lake of Chaohu, China

“…From the perspective of the in uence depth of environmental factors, the thickness should be within 10 cm of the top silt (Liu et al, 2017). In addition, sediment core within 10 cm in shallow lakes is easily to be re-suspended by waves into the water (Qin et al, 2020). Furthermore, the species and biomass of microorganisms and benthic animals are abundant in the top 10 cm layer sediments, resulting in signi cant benthic disturbances, especially around the depth of 5.75±5.67cm in global waters (Lgab et al, 2015).In this study, we sampled undisturbed sediment columns of 20 cm from the top sediment, which should be deep enough to simulate the external interference.…”