Department of Physics, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar 608 002, Tamil Nadu, India.
Environmental Science Center, Qatar University, P.O. Box: 2713, Qatar.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Feb;163:111969. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.111969. Epub 2021 Jan 27.
Abundance, chemical composition and ecological risk of microplastics (MPs) in terrestrial and marine environments have merited substantial attention from the research communities. This is the first attempt to comprehend the ecological risk of MPs in sediments along the Indian coast using meta-data. Polymer hazard index (PHI), pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were used to evaluate the quality of sediments. Areas have high PHI values (>1000) due to the presence of polymers with high hazard scores such as polyamide (PA) and polystyrene (PS). According to PLI values, sediments along the west coast of India (WCI) are moderately contaminated with MPs (PLI: 3.03 to 15.5), whereas sediments along the east coast of India (ECI) are less contaminated (PLI: 1 to 6.14). The PERI values of sediments along the Indian coast showed higher ecological risk for the metropolitan cities, river mouths, potential fishing zones and the remote islands.
微塑料（MPs）在陆地和海洋环境中的丰度、化学组成和生态风险引起了研究界的广泛关注。本研究首次利用元数据尝试理解印度沿海沉积物中 MPs 的生态风险。采用聚合物危害指数（PHI）、污染负荷指数（PLI）和潜在生态风险指数（PERI）评估沉积物质量。由于存在高危害评分的聚合物，如聚酰胺（PA）和聚苯乙烯（PS），因此部分区域的 PHI 值较高（>1000）。根据 PLI 值，印度西海岸（WCI）的沉积物受到 MPs 的中度污染（PLI：3.03 至 15.5），而印度东海岸（ECI）的沉积物污染程度较轻（PLI：1 至 6.14）。印度沿海沉积物的 PERI 值显示出大都市、河口、潜在渔业区和偏远岛屿的生态风险更高。
