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Microplastic in fishes: the first report from a Himalayan River — Alaknanda
Summary
Researchers found microplastics in the gut contents of all five fish species sampled from the Alaknanda River — a headwater of the Ganges — making this the first microplastic study in a Himalayan river. Fibers (66%) dominated, chemically identified as polyester, HDPE, and polypropylene, and the herbi-omnivore species Tor chelenoid had the highest ingestion rates. This finding extends the known geographic reach of freshwater microplastic contamination into remote high-altitude river systems.
The present study aimed to understand microplastic (MP) ingestion by five fish species with different feeding habits namely, Schizothorax richardsonii and Crossocheilus latius (herbivore),Cyprinus carpio (omnivore), Tor chelenoid (herbi-omnivore), and Botia horii (carnivore). The fishes were sampled from River Alaknanda (one of the headwaters of River Ganga) patch at Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The fish gut samples were digested with 30% hydrogen peroxide and vacuum filtered through glass microfiber filter. Each filter paper was observed microscopically to count MPs, and then, selected MPs were chemically characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The results revealed that all the species were contaminated with MPs and the rate of MP ingestion varied with feeding habits. The herbi-omnivore fish, Tor chelenoid, was observed to have the highest MP ingestion. Among the analyzed particles, fibers (66%) were the dominant type of MPs. The MPs were chemically characterized as High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene (PP), and Polyester. This study contributes as a reference for the forthcoming researches, as it is the pioneer work on the ingestion of MP by fishes of a Himalayan River.