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Insights into the horizontal and vertical profiles of microplastics in a river emptying into the sea affected by intensive anthropogenic activities in Northern China

The Science of The Total Environment 2021 68 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 45 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Shu Tao, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, JiaoDi Zhang, Yang Liu, JiaoDi Zhang, Florian Breider Yang Liu, Florian Breider Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Florian Breider Florian Breider Yang Liu, JinAo You, JinAo You, JiaoDi Zhang, JiaoDi Zhang, JiaoDi Zhang, JinAo You, JinAo You, JiaoDi Zhang, Florian Breider Florian Breider Yang Liu, Florian Breider Florian Breider Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Florian Breider Yang Liu, Florian Breider Florian Breider Yang Liu, Florian Breider Yujun Li, Florian Breider Florian Breider Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Yujun Li, Yujun Li, JiaoDi Zhang, Shu Tao, Shu Tao, Yong He, Yong He, Yong He, Yujun Li, JiaoDi Zhang, Yang Liu, JiaoDi Zhang, Shu Tao, Yang Liu, JiaoDi Zhang, Florian Breider JiaoDi Zhang, JiaoDi Zhang, JiaoDi Zhang, Yong He, JiaoDi Zhang, JiaoDi Zhang, Yujun Li, Florian Breider JiaoDi Zhang, Florian Breider Yujun Li, JinAo You, Yujun Li, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Shu Tao, Shu Tao, Shu Tao, Shu Tao, Florian Breider JinAo You, Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Florian Breider Yujun Li, Wenxin Liu, Florian Breider Yujun Li, Yujun Li, Yang Liu, Shu Tao, Florian Breider Yang Liu, Yang Liu, Florian Breider Wenxin Liu, Shu Tao, Shu Tao, Florian Breider Florian Breider Wenxin Liu, Florian Breider Florian Breider

Summary

This first vertical profile study of microplastics in a river in northern China found significant differences in microplastic concentration between surface, intermediate, and bottom waters, with higher abundances near the riverbed, suggesting that surface-only sampling underestimates total microplastic loads.

Polymers

HDPE LDPE PE

Study Type Environmental

Studies focused only on surface water may underestimate microplastic abundance in aquatic environments. This was the first survey to investigate the vertical (surface, intermediate, and bottom waters) distribution and composition of microplastics (MPs) in the water columns and surface sediments collected from an urban seagoing river in northern China. Microplastic abundance in the water columns ranged from 5.6 to 31.4 items∙L and from 2141 to 10,035 items∙kg dry weight (dw) in the surface sediments. Polyethylene dominated throughout the water columns to the surface sediments, in which low- and high-density polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) were dominant in the water columns and surface sediments, respectively. The dominant shape of MPs was fibers/lines in both the water column and the surface sediment samples. Different from the estimations, the average abundance of MPs in the surface and intermediate waters was significantly lower (p < 0.01) than that in the bottom water, which may be due to the resuspension of small-sized MPs in the bottom water. As the MPs size increased, their vertical distributions in the water columns were more affected by the water depth. The results showed that MPs were detained in the water columns of river system, and the high concentrations of MPs in the bottom water could not be neglected.

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