Characteristics Of Microplastic Pollution In Typical Organisms Of The Manfrove Wetland In Beibu Gulf

Microplastics as a new type of environmental pollutant,have been widely concerned in recent years due to their widespread existence in marine and terrestrial environment and serious threat to the environment.Mangrove wetland is located in the transition zone between ocean and land,which can be affected by both land pollution and marine pollution.This unique geographical location makes the coastal area a potential gathering area of microplastics.Because of the high productivity and species diversity of mangrove ecosystem,the microplastic pollution of mangrove ecosystem may be different from other environments.Microplastic pollution in organisms is an environmental problem of increasing concern all over the world.Organisms living in mangrove ecosystem can be used as seafood for people to eat.Therefore,it is of great scientific research value to analyze the microplastic pollution in organisms in mangrove ecosystem.At present,the research on microplastic pollution in mangrove ecosystem is very limited,in order to further promote the research on microplastic pollution in mangrove ecosystem.In this paper,we selected the mangrove area in Beibu Gulf of China as the research area,and carried out a study on the microplastic pollution in typical organisms(molluscs,crustaceans,fish).The main research results are as follows:(1)The ingestion of microplastics by marine organisms is a new threat to the marine ecosystem.In this study,16 species of mollusks,16 species of crustaceans and 13 species of fish in the mangrove area of Beibu Gulf were selected as the research objects,and the abundance and distribution characteristics of microplastics were studied.The results show that the abundance of microplastics in fish is the highest,up to 5.32-6.21items/individual.The most common colors of microplastics in organism are transparent color and white,and the shape of microplastics is mainly fiber.The proportion of 100-500 μm is the most,and polyethylene terephthalate is the most detected polymer species in organisms.These basic data fill the blank of the current research on microplastic pollution in the mangrove area of Beibu Gulf.(2)The relationship between organisms and microplastics in their living environment(seawater,sediment)was further studied.The results show that microplastics are similar in color and shape between organisms and the surrounding environment,while there are significant differences in particle size and polymer type between organisms and the surrounding environment,which indicates that besides the source pollution of microplastics in the surrounding environment,the activity area of organisms and their own feeding behavior may be affected The distribution characteristics of microplastics in the body.(3)Current methods are subject to the limitations of analytical techniques,and there is no full-scale method to measure microplastics in organisms.In this study,Raman Tweezers and spectroscopy methods were combined and applied to identify microplastics in organisms within the size range of 1–5000 μm.The abundance of 1–20 μm microplastics was 0.39–2.83 items/individual in crab and0.35–3.22 items/individual in fish.Most microplastics were transparent in color and pellet shape.The proportion of 1–20 μm microplastics was 35.77%,and analysis shows that the data in this range can not be ignored.The 20–5000 μm microplastics were identified in crab and fish with abundances ranging from0.74–4.96 items/individual and 0.72–5.39 items/individual,respectively.Mainly fiber shape items were detected,the dominant particle size ranged from 20 to100 μm,and most microplastics were white.As a whole,polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate were the main types of microplastics polymers detected.