Microplastic pollution in surface sediments of urban water areas in Changsha, China: Abundance, composition, surface textures

Abstract

Microplastics pollution in the global marine environment has received much recent research attention. However, microplastics contamination of the freshwater environment has not been fully studied, especially with respect to the surface sediments of urban water areas in China. This study investigated surface sediment samples from twelve selected sites in Changsha, China. The average microplastic concentrations in the surface sediments of the urban water areas ranged from 270.17 ± 48.23 items·kg−1 to 866.59 ± 37.96 items·kg−1, and the highest concentration of microplastics was found in Yuejin Lake sediments. Most of the collected microplastics were transparent, and most were classified as fragments. Most microplastics (58.31%) were smaller than 1 mm across all samples. Raman analysis indicated that polystyrene dominated the sediments samples. This study provided framework for future studies of microplastics pollution in the surface sediment of urban water areas in China.