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Interlinked water and sediment microplastics in the Laizhou Bay of China
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Researchers sampled microplastics in both surface water and sediments of China's Laizhou Bay and found that fibrous rayon and PET particles dominate in both media, with sediments acting as a more stable long-term reservoir while surface water concentrations fluctuate more with location, suggesting distinct transport dynamics between the two compartments.
To explore the relationship of microplastic pollution in different media in marine environment, microplastics in the surface seawater and sediments of Laizhou Bay, Bohai Sea, North China, were studied. Seawater samples were collected using a pre-concentrator equipped with a 20-µm mesh size sieve, and sediment samples were collected by a box sampler. The shape, color, size, and type of microplastics were obtained by a stereomicroscope and a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (ATR-μ-FT-IR). Results show that the abundance of microplastics in the surface seawater of Laizhou Bay was 858.3±573.2 items/m3, and that of microplastics in sediments was 151.0±77.4 items/kg dry weight (d.w.) The microplastics in seawater and sediments were mainly fibrous. Meanwhile, the microplastics in seawater were mainly transparent, and those in sediments were transparent and blue. The highest proportion of microplastics in seawater was rayon (77.48%), followed by polyethylene terephthalate (PET, 13.17%). The highest proportion of microplastics in sediments was rayon (73.66%), followed by PET (8.90%). The size of microplastics in 1 000–2 000 µm accounted for the largest proportion of 28.54% in seawater, while that in 500–1 000 µm took 27.93% in sediment. Microplastics in seawater and sediment showed medium-level pollution. In seawater, microplastic abundance was higher in offshore and nearshore areas of Weifang. In sediment, microplastic abundance was higher in offshore and nearshore areas of Dongying. The results of the principal component analysis (PCA) indicated that microplastics in sediment exhibited greater stability compared to those in seawater. The microplastics in seawater and sediment show a positive correlation in terms of shape and plastic type, while exhibiting a negative correlation in terms of color. Overall, microplastics in sediments were smaller in size, and those in seawater and sediments had consistent size distribution characteristics in space.
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