Pollution concerns in mariculture water and cultured economical bivalves: Occurrence of microplastics under different aquaculture modes

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) are prevalent in aquatic environments worldwide, but the occurrence of MPs in different mariculture modes has not been clarified. Four extensively cultured bivalves and ambient surface water were collected to study the MPs pollution characteristics of different mariculture modes. The results indicated that MPs abundance in the inland mode water was 2.5 times higher than that in the marine mode water. The MPs hazard index was evaluated as 655, 390, and 23 in the surface water of the inland, coastal, and marine aquaculture modes, respectively. The MPs abundance in the bivalves in the inland mode was significantly higher than that in the other two modes. There was a positive relationship between the MPs characteristics in the mariculture water and in the cultured bivalves. The abundance of MPs in the four bivalves (calculated items/g) was negatively correlated with soft tissue weight. This study further improves the understanding of MPs pollution characteristics in different aquaculture modes and further highlights the general transmission risk of MPs in various aquaculture systems.