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A Review on Analytical Methods and Occurrences for Microplastics in Freshwater
Summary
This review summarizes analytical methods used to detect and characterize microplastics in freshwater environments. Researchers found that the lack of standardized methods across studies makes it difficult to compare results and assess contamination levels globally. The authors call for development of a unified standard methodology to support more reliable freshwater microplastic monitoring.
The research scope of microplastics in aqueous environment has been expanding from investigation of their presence in oceanic water to the analysis of their distribution and behavior in freshwater. However, research in aqueous environment is limited because the lack of standardized evaluation techniques has resulted in the use of various unrelated analysis methods, thus making it difficult to compare data on microplastic contamination and distribution. Given their known oceanic distribution, a survey on the occurrence of microplastic contamination and behavior in the freshwater environment needs to be conducted using a precise and accurate standard analytical method. Such a method would facilitate a systematic and uniform approach to domestic and international safety management and to the development of improvement plans needed to mitigate microplastic contamination. In this study, we have summarized the technologies recently applied for microplastic analysis and for the investigation of microplastic occurrence in the freshwater environment. We have also presented a review on the analysis and evaluation of microplastic contamination in the future.