Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 214, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114048
Keywords
Microplastics distribution; Groundwater; Abundance; Physical characterization; Microplastics types
Funding
- NSFC-JSPS joint research program [51961145202]
- Heilongjiang Touyan Innovation Team Program [HIT -SE -01]
- State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment (Harbin Institute of Technology) [2022TS42]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigated the occurrence and distribution of microplastics in shallow groundwater in an important water source district in Tianjin city, northern China. The results revealed the widespread contamination of microplastics in the groundwater samples, with abundance correlated to human activities. The findings are important for assessing the potential ecological effects on water quality safety and human health caused by microplastics.
Although the contamination of microplastics (MPs) in groundwater has been anticipated, their occurrence, distribution, and composition require further understanding. In this study, the occurrence and distributions of MPs were investigated in shallow groundwater from an important water source district in Tianjin city of northern China. The abundance, the physical morphology, the chemical composition, and the potential correlations of the determined MPs with human activities were thoroughly characterized. MPs were determined from all ten sampling sites with the abundance ranged between 17.0 +/- 2.16 to 44.0 +/- 1.63 n/L, revealing the ubiquitous existed MPs contamination. Based on the physical categorization, fiber (44.74%) was the most abundant shape, while blue (31.02%) and transparent (26.09%) were the most prevalent colors. The dominant size of MPs was smaller than 200 mu m which accounted for 73.10%. A total of seven types of MPs were determined with poly-ethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polystyrene as the main types, of which, polypropylene showed strong positive correlations with polystyrene, indicating the possible similar sources of them. Besides, the determined MPs in groundwater were greater in areas with the high population density and strong population activity, indicating their high correlation with human activity. The study highlighted the presence of MPs in groundwater of drinking water source in northern China and provided useful information for evaluating the potential ecological effects on water quality safety and human health brought by MPs.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available