Evaluation of microplastic pollution and risk assessment in a tropical monsoonal estuary, with special emphasis on contamination in jellyfish.

Autor: Praved PH; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: haripravedmbio@cusat.ac.in., Neethu KV; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: neethukvmbio@cusat.ac.in., Nandan SB; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: bijoynandan@cusat.ac.in., Sankar ND; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: deepaksankar00@gmail.com., Aravind EH; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: aravindeh@gmail.com., Sebastian S; Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, 682016, Kerala, India. Electronic address: sebastiansruthy25@gmail.com., Marigoudar SR; National Centre for Coastal Research, NIOT Campus, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Pallikaranai, Chennai, 600100, India. Electronic address: srmarigoudar@nccr.gov.in., Sharma KV; National Centre for Coastal Research, NIOT Campus, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, Pallikaranai, Chennai, 600100, India. Electronic address: venkat@nccr.gov.in.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) [Environ Pollut] 2024 Feb 15; Vol. 343, pp. 123158. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Dec 18.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.123158
Abstrakt: Estuaries, which serve as vital links between land and coastal ecosystems, play a significant part in facilitating the transfer of plastic waste from the land to the ocean. In this research, we examined the prevalence, characteristics, and ecological risks of microplastics (MPs) in the extensively urbanized Cochin Estuarine System (CES), India. Additionally, it represents one of the initial evidence-based examinations of MPs ingestion by jellyfish in Indian waters, focusing on Acromitus flagellatus, Blackfordia virginica, and Pleurobrachia pileus species. The abundance of MPs found in the surface water of the Cochin Estuarine System (CES) varied between 14.44 ± 9 to 30 ± 15.94 MP/m 3 , with an average of 21.6 ± 11 MP/m 3 . In both surface waters and jellyfish from the Cochin Estuarine System (CES), fibers were the most prevalent type of MPs, with polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyamide (PA) being the most common polymer varieties. To evaluate the current levels of MPs and their effect on the CES, the Pollution Load Index (PLI), Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI), and Polymeric Risk Index (H) were utilized. The high PLI estuary values (20.33), high H estuary values (234.02), and extreme PERI estuary value (1646.06) indicate that the CES is facing an extreme ecological risk. Among the 280 jellyfish individuals examined, 118 (42.14%) were recognized to contain MPs with an average of 1.54 ± 2.68 MPs/individual. Pearson bivariate analysis revealed a significant correlation between the jellyfish bell size and number of plastics per individual. Comparison between jellyfish species revealed, the majority (66%) of the MPs identified in jellyfish were from A. flagellatus and 44 among the 50 jellyfish examined (88%) had MPs. These findings suggest that A. flagellatus may be a potential sink for MPs and may be utilized to be a bioindicator for monitoring MPs contamination in estuarine systems, aiding in future plastic pollution mitigation efforts.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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