Joint Laboratory of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong Region on Marine Bioresource Conservation and Exploitation, College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510641, China.
National Engineering Research Center for Non-Food Biorefinery, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Bio-refinery, Guangxi Academy of Sciences, 98 Daling Road, Nanning 530007, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Feb 15;18(4):1869. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18041869.
The small size of microplastics and their wide distribution in water environments have attracted worldwide attention and heated discussion, because of their ingestion by aquatic organisms. At present, there are few studies on microplastics pollution in freshwater aquaculture ponds, especially shrimp ponds. In this study, the aquaculture ponds in the Pearl River Estuary were investigated. The abundance and composition of microplastics in different environmental media were studied to explore the potential sources and risk levels of microplastics, so as to provide basic data for the study of microplastics pollution in aquaculture ponds. Microplastics were observed in water and sediment samples at all sampling sites, with the abundance of 6.6 × 10-263.6 × 10 items/m (surface water) and 566.67-2500 items/kg (sediment), respectively. Thirty-seven individuals collected in six ponds belong to four species. Microplastics were observed in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of all fishes and shrimps, with the abundance ranging from 3-92 items/individual (fish) and 4-21 items/individual (shrimp). Among all samples, microplastics with the size range of <1 mm and fiber shape were the most common. The main microplastic components were cellulose, polypropylene (PP), and polyethylene (PE). The results of potential risk assessment showed that the pollution investigation of microplastics should not only consider the abundance. Low abundance does not mean low risk. Taking the toxicity score and abundance of microplastics as evaluation indexes to reflect the pollution status of microplastics may make the results more reliable.
微塑料体积小，在水环境中分布广泛，因其被水生生物摄入而受到全球关注和热议。目前，关于淡水养殖池塘，尤其是虾塘中的微塑料污染研究较少。本研究调查了珠江口养殖池塘，研究了不同环境介质中微塑料的丰度和组成，以探讨微塑料的潜在来源和风险水平，为养殖池塘中微塑料污染的研究提供基础数据。在所有采样点的水样和沉积物样品中都观察到了微塑料，其丰度分别为 6.6×10-263.6×10 个/m（地表水）和 566.67-2500 个/kg（沉积物）。在六个池塘中采集的 37 个个体属于四个物种。所有鱼类和虾类的胃肠道（GIT）中都观察到了微塑料，丰度范围为 3-92 个/个体（鱼类）和 4-21 个/个体（虾类）。在所有样本中，<1mm 大小范围和纤维形状的微塑料最为常见。主要的微塑料成分是纤维素、聚丙烯（PP）和聚乙烯（PE）。潜在风险评估结果表明，微塑料污染调查不仅要考虑丰度。低丰度并不意味着低风险。以微塑料的毒性得分和丰度作为评估指标来反映微塑料的污染状况，可能会使结果更加可靠。
