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The competition of heavy metals between hyporheic sediments and microplastics of driving factors in the Beiluo River Basin
Summary
Researchers studied the competitive enrichment of heavy metals between river sediments and microplastics in the Beiluo River Basin. They found that while sediments generally had higher heavy metal concentrations overall, microplastics selectively accumulated certain metals at higher rates depending on environmental conditions. The study highlights that microplastics in river systems can act as carriers that redistribute heavy metal contamination in complex ways.
Both sediments and microplastics (MPs) are medias of heavy metals (HMs) in river ecosystems. This study investigated HMs (Mn, Cr, V, As, Cu, Co, Cd, Pb, and Ni) concentration and driving factors for competitive enrichment between hyporheic sediments versus MPs. The medias basic characteristics indicated that the sediments were mostly sand and rich in FeO; three polymer types were identified, with blue, fragment, less than 500 µm being the main types of MPs. The results have shown that the average content of extracted HMs in MPs was much higher than that of the same metals accumulated in sediments. HMs in sediments and MPs reached heavily polluted at some points, among which As and Cd were ecological risks. Electrostatic adsorption and surface complexation, and biofilm-mediated and organic matter complexation were the interaction mechanism of HMs with sediments and MPs. Further, the driving factors affecting the distribution of HMs in the two carriers were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis. The results demonstrated that carrier characteristics, hydrochemical factors, and the inherent metal load of MPs were the main causes of the high HMs content. These findings improved our understanding of HMs fate and environmental risks across multiple medias.