College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China; Joint Laboratory of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong Region on Marine Bioresource Conservation and Exploitation, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China.
Chemosphere. 2019 Feb;217:879-886. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2018.11.093. Epub 2018 Nov 14.
Like many urban rivers, the Pearl River in China is contaminated with microplastics. Compared with marine environments, microplastic pollution in freshwater is less understood, especially in urban rivers. In the present study, the abundance and distribution of microplastics in water from the Pearl River was investigated, including the estuary and the urban section along Guangzhou. The average abundance of microplastics was 19,860 items/m and 8902 items/m in the urban section and estuary, respectively. Wastewater effluents from cities might be a main source of microplastics in the Pearl River, and the urban tributaries might act as retention systems for microplastics. Among these microplastics, over 80% of them were less than 0.5 mm. The main shapes of microplastics were film, fragment, and fiber, mostly blue or transparent. Moreover, the most common polymer types of these microplastics were polyamide (26.2%) and cellophane (23.1%). This study reveals the contamination and characteristics of microplastics in the Pearl River, and provides important data for further research on microplastics in freshwater ecosystems.
与许多城市河流一样，中国的珠江受到了微塑料的污染。与海洋环境相比，人们对淡水环境中的微塑料污染了解较少，特别是在城市河流中。本研究调查了珠江水中微塑料的丰度和分布情况，包括河口和广州段的城市河道。在城市河段和河口，微塑料的平均丰度分别为 19860 个/立方米和 8902 个/立方米。城市污水可能是珠江中微塑料的主要来源，城市支流可能是微塑料的滞留系统。在这些微塑料中，超过 80%的微塑料小于 0.5 毫米。微塑料的主要形状是薄膜、碎片和纤维，大多为蓝色或透明色。此外，这些微塑料中最常见的聚合物类型是聚酰胺（26.2%）和赛璐珞（23.1%）。本研究揭示了珠江中微塑料的污染和特征，为进一步研究淡水生态系统中的微塑料提供了重要数据。
