Ecological interception effect of mangroves on microplastics

As the last barrier preventing river pollutants from entering the ocean, mangroves have strong absorption and purification abilities, and strong tolerance. We collected mangrove surface water and sediment samples from the Xixi Estuary of Xiamen city. The results showed that the abundance of microplastics in seawater ranged from 620 to 13,100 n/m, the abundance of microplastics in sediment ranged from 143 to 488 n/kg, the distribution of microplastics was uneven, and the abundance of microplastics in the Xixi Estuary mangrove was significantly higher than that in the non-mangrove area. The sediment column sample results also showed that microplastics were detected in each layer of the sediments, indicating that microplastics were trapped in each layer of mangrove sediments. Therefore, we believe that mangrove forests have an ecological interception effect on microplastics. After entering mangroves, microplastics are affected by tidal reciprocating current scouring, river runoff, sunlight, wind erosion and other factors and gradually break into increasingly smaller particles through physical, chemical and biological effects. Microplastics accumulate in the sediments and experience sedimentation, suspension and reprecipitation processes together with the surface sediments. Mangroves should be widely planted in estuaries to reduce microplastic entry into the ocean.