Xiong Xiong, Kai Zhang, Xianchuan Chen, Huahong Shi, Ze Luo, Chenxi Wu

Environmental Pollution, Volume 235, 2018, Pages 899-906, ISSN 0269-7491,

Abstract:

Microplastic pollution was studied in China’s largest inland
lake – Qinghai Lake in this work. Microplastics were detected with
abundance varies from 0.05 × 105 to 7.58 × 105 items km−2 in the lake
surface water, 0.03 × 105 to 0.31 × 105 items km−2 in the inflowing
rivers, 50 to 1292 items m−2 in the lakeshore sediment, and 2 to 15
items per individual in the fish samples, respectively. Small
microplastics (0.1–0.5 mm) dominated in the lake surface water while
large microplastics (1–5 mm) are more abundant in the river samples.
Microplastics were predominantly in sheet and fiber shapes in the lake
and river water samples but were more diverse in the lakeshore sediment
samples. Polymer types of microplastics were mainly polyethylene (PE)
and polypropylene (PP) as identified using Raman Spectroscopy.
Spatially, microplastic abundance was the highest in the central part of
the lake, likely due to the transport of lake current. Based on the
higher abundance of microplastics near the tourist access points,
plastic wastes from tourism are considered as an important source of
microplastics in Qinghai Lake. As an important area for wildlife
conservation, better waste management practice should be implemented,
and waste disposal and recycling infrastructures should be improved for
the protection of Qinghai Lake.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hyquhqm40i3vsIDn-8imPD5OIFX3plYd

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.12.081.(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749117345591)