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Microplastic pollution of Calicut beach - Contributing factors and possible impacts
Summary
Researchers conducted annual monitoring of microplastics in Calicut beach sediments from 2016 to 2019, finding concentrations ranging from 80.56 to 467.13 items per kilogram with polyethylene consistently dominant. A notable surge in microplastic levels was observed following severe Kerala floods in 2018 and 2019, linking flood events to increased coastal plastic deposition.
Annual monitoring was carried out in the shoreline sediments of the Calicut beach, from 2016 to 2019 to understand the distribution and abundance of microplastics and its environmental implications. Further, the impact of the severe fluvial floods of Kerala during the August months of 2018 and 2019, on the microplastic pollution of the Calicut beach was also determined. Microplastic concentrations ranged between 80.56 items/kg of dry sand to 467.13 items/kg of dry sand during the sampling period. Polyethylene type was consistently higher in all the samples. There was a surge in microplastics concentration during both the floods with a higher proportion of low-retention-period microplastics. Among the different oceanographic parameters, it was found that significant wave height and surface wind speed are positively correlated to the number of the microplastics in Calicut beach.
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