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Abundance and characteristics of microplastics in sediments from the world's longest natural beach, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh
Summary
This study provided the first description of microplastic presence, quantity, and diversity in intertidal sediments from Cox's Bazar, the world's longest natural beach in Bangladesh. Microplastics were extracted from 24 sediment samples and analyzed by density separation, revealing widespread contamination with diverse polymer types.
This study aimed to provide the first description of the presence, quantity, and diversity of microplastics (MPs) in intertidal sediments from the world's longest natural beach, Cox's Bazar. MPs were extracted from 24 surficial sediment samples through the density separation method, and identification was carried out using a stereomicroscope. Results showed that the abundance of MPs varied from 200 to 378.8 items kg with the mean abundance of 368.68 ± 10.65 items kg. Fibers were the dominant (53%) MPs in this study, followed by films (20%) and fragments (12%). The dominant plastic particle color was purple (18%), followed by pink (14%) and red (7%), with shapes that were mainly filamentous (53%) and irregular (41%). The majority (59%) of the MPs measured were 1-5 mm in size, followed by 0.5-1 mm (27%) and <0.5 mm (14%).