Microplastics in surface waters and sediments of the Wei River, in the northwest of China

Ling Ding; Ruo Fan Mao; Xuetao Guo; Xiaomei Yang; Qian Zhang; Chen Yang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.332

Microplastics in surface waters and sediments of the Wei River, in the northwest of China

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Jun 1:667:427-434. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.332. Epub 2019 Feb 27.

Authors

Ling Ding¹, Ruo Fan Mao¹, Xuetao Guo², Xiaomei Yang¹, Qian Zhang³, Chen Yang⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.
² College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China. Electronic address: guoxuetao2005@nwafu.edu.cn.
³ School of Life and Environmental Science, Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin, Guangxi 541000,China.
⁴ College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.

PMID: 30833241
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.332

Abstract

Microplastic pollution is an increasingly important environment problem. Many studies show the occurrence of microplastics in our environmental system. However, the freshwater system is less understood, especially in northwest China. We investigated the occurrence and characteristics of microplastics in the Wei River Basin, which is located in northwestern China. The Wei River is the largest tributary of the Yellow River and runs through three major provinces. In the Wei River, the concentration of microplastics in the surface waters varied from 3.67 to 10.7 items /L and in the sediments, the abundance of microplastics varied from 360 to 1320 items/kg. Fiber (50.1%)was the dominant types in water samples and sediments. The small size (<0.5 mm)(68.1%)were the main size of microplastics in Wei River. The types of microplastics were polyethylene, Polyvinyl chloride and polystyrene, as identified using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. This study could be a valuable reference for better understanding the microplastics pollution in inland northwestern China.

Keywords: Abundance; Microplastics; Sediment; Surface water; Wei River.