1. "The great source" microplastic abundance and characteristics along the river Thames.
- Author
-
Devereux R, Ayati B, Westhead EK, Jayaratne R, and Newport D
- Subjects
- Plastics analysis, Rivers, Environmental Monitoring, Water analysis, Microplastics, Water Pollutants, Chemical analysis
- Abstract
This study focused on quantifying the abundance of microplastics within the surface water of the River Thames, UK. Ten sites in eight areas were sampled within the tidal Thames, starting from Teddington and ending at Southend-on-Sea. Three litres of water was collected monthly at high tide from land-based structures from each site from May 2019 to May 2021. Samples underwent visual analysis for microplastics categorised based on type, colour and size. 1041 pieces were tested using Fourier transform spectroscopy to identify chemical composition and polymer type. 6401 pieces of MP were found during sampling with an average MP of 12.27 pieces L
-1 along the river Thames. Results from this study show that microplastic abundance does not increase along the river., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)- Published
- 2023
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