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Mangrove leaves: An undeniably important sink of MPs from tidal water and air
Summary
Mangrove leaves in the Beibu Gulf, China were found to trap microplastics from both tidal water and air, with submerged leaves capturing significantly more particles than non-submerged leaves, identifying mangroves as an important but understudied sink for microplastic pollution.
Capturing microplastics (MPs) were one of the important characteristics for terrestrial plant. Whereas, role of mangrove leaves in capturing MPs from tidal water and air were still largely unexplored. Here, we detected the spatial distribution of MPs at both submerged (0.10-0.49 n/cm) and non-submerged mangrove leaves (0.09-0.24 n/cm) in the Beibu Gulf. Abundance of MPs on submerged mangrove leaves was significantly higher than that on non-submerged mangrove leaves in landward and middle zone (*p < 0.05). Almost no difference existed in the abundances of MPs detected on leaves of different mangrove species. Abundance of MPs on submerged mangrove leaves increased following the sequences of seaward zone (0.11 n/cm) < middle zone (0.21 n/cm) < landward zone (0.36 n/cm). PE MPs with uncoloured/fiber characteristics dominated the MPs both on the non-submerged and submerged mangrove leaves. Furthermore, contribution of tidal water was significantly greater than that of atmospheric deposition on MPs retention on submerged mangrove leaves. Results of this work highlight the importance of tidal water and air in the spatial distribution of MPs at mangrove leaves, and the globally MPs gross reserves at mangrove leaves cannot be ignored in evaluating the MPs sink in mangrove wetland.