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Occurrence and distribution of microplastics in wetlands
Summary
This review examined the available research on microplastic occurrence and distribution across wetland ecosystems worldwide. Researchers found that wetlands are prone to microplastic pollution, with polyethylene and polypropylene being the most commonly detected polymer types, and fibers and fragments being the dominant particle shapes. The study highlights that wetlands remain understudied compared to other aquatic ecosystems despite their ecological importance as transitional zones.
Presence of microplastic particles has been reported in all over the world, even in remote areas with no human activities. Wetlands are important transitional areas between terrestrial and aquatic systems. However, microplastic pollution in wetlands is less studied than other aquatic ecosystems. In this review, documented researches about microplastic occurrence and distribution in different components of wetland systems (except constructed wetlands) were investigated. In this regard, all available articles from different science databases with the keywords microplastic, wetland and lagoon in title were examined and results were proposed by text, table and diagram, after standardization of data express units. Based on results, wetland ecosystems are prone to microplastic pollution. Based on particle properties, PE/PP and fiber/fragment were the most dominant reported chemical composition and particle shapes, respectively.
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