Abstract
To date, the largest Russian rivers discharging to the Arctic Ocean remain a “blank spot” on the world map of data on the distribution of microplastics in freshwater systems. This study characterizes the abundance and morphology of microplastics in surface water of the Ob River and its large tributary, the Tom River, in western Siberia. The average number of particles for the two rivers ranged from 44.2 to 51.2 items per m3 or from 79.4 to 87.5 μg per m3 in the Tom River and in the Ob River, respectively. Of the recovered microplastics, 93.5% were less than 1 mm in their largest dimension, the largest group (45.5% of total counts) consisted of particles with sizes range 0.30–1.00 mm. Generally, microfragments of irregular shape were the most abundant among the Ob and Tom samples (47.4%) and exceeded microfibers (22.1%), microfilms (20.8%), and microspheres (9.74%) by average counts. Results from this study provide a baseline for understanding the scale of the transport of microplastics by the Ob River system into the Arctic Ocean and add to currently available data on microplastics abundance and diversity in freshwater systems of differing global geographic locations.
Highlights
Microplastics (MPs) are a collective term to describe any synthetic solid particle or polymeric matrix with regular or irregular shape and with size under 5 mm [1]
Surface water was sampled from the Ob River (n = 5), and the Ob tributary, the
Water in the Ob and Tom rivers was characterized mostly as alkaline, with a tendency to decrease in pH northwards (Table 2)
Summary
Microplastics (MPs) are a collective term to describe any synthetic solid particle or polymeric matrix with regular or irregular shape and with size under 5 mm [1]. Particles less than 1 mm are classified as MPs, while those larger than 1 mm Small particles are formed in the process of sequential decomposition of larger plastic materials mainly resulting from the action of physical and chemical factors [4] or can enter aquatic systems in the form of small pellets or beads used in many industrial processes and personal care products [5]. MP particles can adsorb toxic chemicals, serving as vectors of their transport into ecosystems. Some plastics may contain hazardous chemicals added during their production to improve polymer properties [8,12]
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