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Factors affecting microplastic accumulation by wild fish: A case study in the Nandu River, South China.
- Source :
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The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2022 Nov 15; Vol. 847, pp. 157486. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jul 20. - Publication Year :
- 2022
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Abstract
- Quantifying microplastic accumulation in aquatic organisms is important for risk assessments in natural habitats. However, studies on the factors influencing microplastic accumulation by fish, particularly in natural water bodies, remain limited. In this study, we monitored the microplastic pollution characteristics in the fish digestive tract and surface water of the Nandu River, the largest river in Hainan, China. Among the 179 fish examined, microplastics were detected in 90.5 %, covering 27 fish species. Moreover, low abundance of microplastics occurred among the different fish, with an average of 3.20 ± 2.60 particles per fish. Fibrous microplastics with a large size (>500 μm) were dominant in both the water column and fish. In this study, fish size, feeding habits, and living habitats did not affect microplastic abundance in fish. Based on the analysis of differences in the abundance and morphological characteristics of microplastics in water column and fish, we suggested that the random intake and differential excretion of microplastics with different characteristics by fish might lead to the homogeneity of microplastic accumulation in different fish. Our study suggest that more attention should be given to the negative effects of microplastics on small fish owing to the higher microplastic exposure per gram weight, and further improvement in microplastic risk assessment methods is required.<br />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.<br /> (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1879-1026
- Volume :
- 847
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 35868373
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157486