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Article ? AI-assigned paper type based on the abstract. Classification may not be perfect — flag errors using the feedback button. Tier 2 ? Original research — experimental, observational, or case-control study. Direct primary evidence. Environmental Sources Marine & Wildlife Sign in to save

Evidence for Microplastics Contamination of the Remote Tributary of the Yenisei River, Siberia—The Pilot Study Results

Water 2021 36 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Yulia A. Frank, Danil S. Vorobiev, Olga A. Kayler, Egor D. Vorobiev, Ksenia S. Kulinicheva, Anton Trifonov, Tina Hunter

Summary

Researchers found microplastic concentrations of 1.20 to 4.53 items/m³ in surface water and up to 543 items/kg in bottom sediments of the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, a remote Yenisei tributary in Siberia, with concentrations likely originating from local human activity and increasing downstream.

Study Type Environmental

This study is a pioneering attempt to count microplastics (MPs) in the Yenisei River system to clarify the role of Siberian Rivers in the transport of MPs to the Arctic Ocean. The average MPs content in the surface water of the Yenisei large tributary, the Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, varied from 1.20 ± 0.70 to 4.53 ± 2.04 items/m3, tending to increase along the watercourse (p < 0.05). Concentrations of MPs in bottom sediments of the two rivers were 235 ± 83.0 to 543 ± 94.1 with no tendency of downstream increasing. Linear association (r = 0.952) between average organic matter content and average counts of MPs in bottom sediments occurred. Presumably MPs originated from the daily activities of the in-situ population. Further spatial-temporal studies are needed to estimate the riverine MPs fluxes into the Eurasian Arctic seas.

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