College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
J Hazard Mater. 2023 Sep 5;457:131838. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131838. Epub 2023 Jun 12.
Microplastics are a new type of contaminant, widely defined as fragmented plastics with the longest dimension or diameter less than 5 mm, that are widely distributed, difficult to degrade, and easily adsorb other pollutants. Estuaries are key habitats where terrestrial microplastics flow in water runoff and import into the ocean. The ubiquitous use of plastics has resulted in a massive amount of plastic waste that is released and accumulated in bay ecosystems, posing serious ecological impacts. The study of microplastic contamination in Hangzhou Bay, the estuary of the Qiantang River, has important theoretical value in ecology and environmental science. Microplastic contamination in the tidal flats and organisms of Hangzhou Bay is serious and microplastic characteristics (type, size, and polymer type) in organisms were significantly correlated with those in the environmental media. Spatial autocorrelation was found in the abundance of microplastics in marine and tidal flat sediments of Hangzhou Bay, China, but no spatial autocorrelation was found in the sediment environment as a whole. The microplastic abundance in each organism in this study was not statistically correlated by weight or by individual count with its corresponding trophic level (P = 0.239 > 0.05; P = 0.492 > 0.05, respectively). Our study suggests a coupling relationship of microplastic contamination between organisms and the environment and can provide essential data and a scientific foundation for the study of microplastics pollution in Hangzhou Bay, as well as provide important evidence for the ecological and health risk assessment of microplastics.
微塑料是一种新型污染物，通常被定义为最长尺寸或直径小于 5 毫米的塑料碎片，广泛分布、难以降解且易于吸附其他污染物。河口是陆地微塑料随径流入海并输入海洋的关键栖息地。由于塑料的广泛使用，大量的塑料废物被释放并在海湾生态系统中积累，对生态造成了严重影响。研究钱塘江入海口杭州湾的微塑料污染在生态学和环境科学方面具有重要的理论价值。杭州湾滩涂和生物体内的微塑料污染严重，生物体内的微塑料特征（类型、大小和聚合物类型）与环境介质中的特征显著相关。中国杭州湾海洋和滩涂沉积物中微塑料丰度存在空间自相关，但整个沉积环境不存在空间自相关。本研究中，每个生物体的微塑料丰度按重量或个体计数与其相应的营养级（P=0.239>0.05；P=0.492>0.05）均无统计学相关性。本研究表明，生物体和环境之间的微塑料污染存在耦合关系，可为杭州湾微塑料污染研究提供重要数据和科学依据，并为微塑料的生态和健康风险评估提供重要证据。
