4.7 Article

Effects of anthropogenic discharge and hydraulic deposition on the distribution and accumulation of microplastics in surface sediments of a typical seagoing river: The Haihe River

Journal

JOURNAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
Volume 404, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124180

Keywords

Microplastics; Surface sediments; the Haihe River; Generalized additive model (GAM); Influencing factors

Funding

  1. Natural Science Foundation Committee of China [41991311]
  2. National Key Research and Development Program of China [2019YFC1804204]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

The study found high abundance of microplastics in the Haihe River, with small particles and polyethylene being the main components. It also showed that microplastics abundance is related to the organic carbon content and particle size of sediments, with local sewage effluent and dams on the river being the main influencing factors.
Microplastics pollution in river systems has generated great concern; however, few studies have focused on the contributions of multiple influencing factors to microplastics in river systems. In the current study, we utilized data on microplastics in surface sediments from the Haihe River, a seagoing river in northern China to establish a generalized additive model (GAM) for quantifying the effects of multiple factors on the distribution of microplastics. A high abundance of microplastics (4980 +/- 2462 items.kg(-1) dry weight) was found. Small particles (< 1000 mu m) accounted for a dominant proportion (44.8-61.0%). Polyethylene (PE) was the chief component with an averaged fraction of 49.3%, in which low- and high-density polyethylene contributed 90.7% and 9.3% of the PE, respectively. Microplastics abundance was positively correlated with sediment TOC and the silt fraction (p < 0.05) but negatively correlated with the sand fraction (p < 0.05). The GAM could explain approximate 60% of the total microplastics abundance, and dam (28.5%), sediment TOC (22.9%), and sewage effluent (17.6%) were the main contributors to total variations in microplastics abundance. Local sewage effluent acted as an important point source of microplastics discharge, and the dam on the river greatly affected the deposition and accumulation of microplastics.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available