Atmospheric deposition of microplastics in a rural region of North China Plain

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is becoming one of the most pressing environmental issues globally. MPs in the marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments have been fairly well investigated. However, knowledge of the atmospheric-mediated deposition of MPs within rural environments is limited. Here, we present the results of bulk (dry and wet) atmospheric MPs deposition in a rural region of Quzhou County in the North China Plain (NCP). Samples of MPs in the atmospheric bulk deposition were collected for individual rainfall events over a 12-month period from August 2020 to August 2021. The number and size of MPs from 35 rainfall samples were measured by fluorescence microscopy, while the chemical composition of MPs was identified using micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μ-FTIR). The results showed that the atmospheric MPs deposition rate in summer (892–75,421 particles/m2/day) was highest compared to 735–9428, 280–4244 and 86–1347 particles/m2/day in spring, autumn, and winter, respectively. Furthermore, the MPs deposition rates in our study were 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than those in other regions, indicating a higher rate of MPs deposition in the rural region of the NCP. MPs with a diameter of 3–50 μm accounted for 75.6 %, 78.4 %, 73.4 % and 66.1 % of total MPs deposition in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively, showing that the majority of MPs in the current study were small in size. Rayon fibers accounted for the largest proportion (32 %) of all MPs, followed by polyethylene terephthalate (12 %) and polyethylene (8 %). This study also found that a significant positive correlation between rainfall volume and MPs deposition rate. In addition, HYSPLIT back-trajectory modelling showed that the farthest source of deposition MPs may have come from Russia.