Abstract
Microplastics are man-made pollutants which have been detected in surface water and groundwater. Research on microplastic concentration in aquatic environment is attracting scientists from developing countries, but in Nepal no information regarding microplastic in freshwater system is available. Therefore, this study investigates the presence and abundance of microplastic in lake surface water of Phewa Lake, the second largest lake in Nepal. The average concentration of microplastic for surface water was 2.96 ± 1.83 particles/L in winter (dry) season and 1.51 ± 0.62 particles/L in rainy (wet) season. Significant difference with t = 4.687 (p < 0.01) in microplastic concentration was observed in two different seasons. Fibers (93.04% for winter and 96.69% for rainy season) were the commonly found microplastic type in lake water and transparent as the dominant color for the two seasons. Almost all the detected microplastic were found to be < 1 mm in size. Due to the small size of microplastic and unavailability of micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy in Nepal, polymer identification was not done. The findings from this study can provide a valuable baseline data on microplastics for the first time in Nepal’s freshwater lake environment.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-18301-9.
Highlights
Plastics are versatile materials and have become an integral part in peoples’ daily lives across the globe (Xia et al 2021)
Microplastics were present in all surface water collected from 16 sampling locations of Phewa Lake for winter and rainy seasons
The abundance of microplastics ranges from 0.8–8 particles/L for winter season and 0.4–2.8 particles/L for rainy season
Summary
Plastics are versatile materials and have become an integral part in peoples’ daily lives across the globe (Xia et al 2021). With the widespread indiscriminate use of plastic products and improper disposal of plastic litter (Silva et al 2020) during COVID-19 pandemic, it has intensified plastic pollution crisis that must be addressed by a powerful and effective plan of action (United Nations Environmental Program 2021). Secondary microplastics are formed by the fragmentation of macroplastic as a result of weathering of plastic debris or disintegration of car tire (United Nations Environmental Program 2018). Microplastics are ubiquitous in the aquatic environment This is of increasing concern as it is associated with various ecotoxicological effects (Akdogan and Guven 2019) once inhaled or ingested by human which include oxidative stress, inflammatory lesions, increased internalization or translocation (Rahman et al 2021; Yong et al 2020), and even cellular damage, immune reactions, and DNA damage (Yong et al 2020). Aging of microplastics increases the risk of ingestion by organism, enhances interaction with pollutants, and the release of microplastic-derived organic compounds (Liu et al 2021)
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