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Microplastics pollution in water and sediment matrices of the old Brahmaputra River, bangladesh: an ecological risk appraisal of an urban river
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Seasonal sampling of surface water and sediment in the Old Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh found microplastic concentrations highest in winter (over 4 million items/km² in water), dominated by polypropylene fibers and fragments, with a Pollution Load Index indicating low but measurable ecological risk. The study provides baseline contamination data for an ecologically important South Asian urban river, establishing a foundation for monitoring and policy responses in a region with rapidly growing plastic use.
This study aims to quantify spatiotemporal distributions, morphological characterization and polymer-type identification of microplastics (MPs) in the surface water and sediment matrices of the Old Brahmaputra River (Bangladesh), an urban, yet ecologically and environmentally important ecosystem in South Asia, and to appraise the associated risk. The average abundances of MPs were higher in winter (water: 4,125,609 items/km2, sediment: 369 items/kg) than in early monsoon (water: 249,742 items/km2, sediment: 144 items/kg) and post-monsoon (water: 2,344,231 items/km2, sediment: 292 items/kg). The two-way ANOVA test results showed a significant interaction effect between season and station (p < 0.05). The effect of season on abundance variation was more pronounced than that of station. The most prevalent shapes of MPs detected in both water and sediment were lines (37 to 88%), and fragments (9 to 50%). Blue, red, and black were predominant among 12 other colors. Polypropylene was reported to be the most dominant polymer type both in water and sediment. The overall (covering all seasons) Pollution Load Index (PLI) by both surface water (PLI value: 5.14) and sediment (PLI value: 5.55) for the Old Brahmaputra River (municipal area) was at a low-risk level (PLI < 10), representing that the MPs had not polluted this ecosystem severely. This study provides the authority concerned with new insights for evolving strategies to reduce the pollution load, given the ecological importance of the ecosystem, as PLI determines only the degree of contamination, not the toxicity of MPs on aquatic organisms and the associated risk to human health.
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