Distribution and Risk Assessment of Microplastics in the Basin of the Pearl River, China

IF 3.8 4区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution Pub Date : 2025-04-10 DOI:10.1007/s11270-025-07980-6

Fengxue Wu, Jingfu Wang, Shihao Jiang, Dengjun Wang, Senhua Hu, Jingan Chen

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Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is one of the most pressing environmental problems. Rivers are important conduits for land-sea transport of materials and greatly influence the behaviour of MPs into the ocean. The Pearl River is the second largest river in China in terms of water flow and has a prosperous transport industry. Meanwhile, a large amount of MPs are transported into the South China Sea through the Pearl River. We collected water samples from the origin to the estuary of the Pearl River and studied the abundance, characteristics, ecological risks, and possible impacting factors of MPs. The results showed that the abundance of MPs in the surface water of the Pearl River Basin ranged from 0.7 to 4.5 items/L, and the distribution of abundance showed the order of: origin > estuary > downstream > midstream > upstream. MPs with sizes of 1–1000 µm were the most widely distributed, and fragments and fibers were the most prevalent MPs. The distribution of MPs showed strong spatial heterogeneity, with Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) dominating at the origin and upstream, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) dominating in the midstream, while polyethylene (PE) was most abundant in the downstream and estuary of the Pearl River Basin. Compared with the literature data, the concentration of MPs in the Pearl River Basin was overall low, and the pollution load index indicates that the Pearl River is at a low pollution level. However, the highly toxic PMMA could lead to significant ecological risks in the Pearl River, especially at the origin and upstream watersheds. Natural factors such as hydrological conditions, gravity, and topography can affect the migration trajectory of this MPs. Reservoirs and the concave banks of curved rivers may become new"sinks"for MPs.

Graphical Abstract

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来源期刊

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

6.90%

发文量

448

审稿时长

2.6 months

期刊介绍： Water, Air, & Soil Pollution is an international, interdisciplinary journal on all aspects of pollution and solutions to pollution in the biosphere. This includes chemical, physical and biological processes affecting flora, fauna, water, air and soil in relation to environmental pollution. Because of its scope, the subject areas are diverse and include all aspects of pollution sources, transport, deposition, accumulation, acid precipitation, atmospheric pollution, metals, aquatic pollution including marine pollution and ground water, waste water, pesticides, soil pollution, sewage, sediment pollution, forestry pollution, effects of pollutants on humans, vegetation, fish, aquatic species, micro-organisms, and animals, environmental and molecular toxicology applied to pollution research, biosensors, global and climate change, ecological implications of pollution and pollution models. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution also publishes manuscripts on novel methods used in the study of environmental pollutants, environmental toxicology, environmental biology, novel environmental engineering related to pollution, biodiversity as influenced by pollution, novel environmental biotechnology as applied to pollution (e.g. bioremediation), environmental modelling and biorestoration of polluted environments. Articles should not be submitted that are of local interest only and do not advance international knowledge in environmental pollution and solutions to pollution. Articles that simply replicate known knowledge or techniques while researching a local pollution problem will normally be rejected without review. Submitted articles must have up-to-date references, employ the correct experimental replication and statistical analysis, where needed and contain a significant contribution to new knowledge. The publishing and editorial team sincerely appreciate your cooperation. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution publishes research papers; review articles; mini-reviews; and book reviews.