A new holistic perspective to assess the ecological risk of microplastics: A case study in Baiyangdian Basin, China

Abstract

By integrating probabilistic ecological risk assessment with the overall risk index method, which considers the multidimensional characteristics of the microplastome, the ecological risks of microplastic pollution were assessed more comprehensively. This study took the Baiyangdian Basin as an example to address the limitations of current risk assessment methods that rely on concentration data or the individual risk of microplastics. Using an exponential regression model, the acute and chronic ecological risk thresholds for the overall risk index method were determined to be 0.43 and 0.30, respectively. The acute and chronic ecological risks of the microplastome occupied 61% and 79% of the Baiyangdian Wetland and 0% and 14% of the Fu River, while the Xiaoyi River did not exhibit risk during the rainy season. Results indicated that intense human activities, poor hydrodynamics, low settling velocity and high levels of environmental chemical pollutants jointly contributed to the high risk of the microplastome in water bodies. Compared with the probabilistic ecological risk assessment method (risk characterization ratio), there was a significant difference in the area of acute and chronic ecological risks caused by the microplastome in the Baiyangdian Basin when using the overall risk index method. This proved that considering only concentration cannot truly reflect the toxicity of microplastics to aquatic organisms.