Abstract:
To research the distributed characteristics, polluted status and potential factors of microplastics in estuaries of Changhua river, Hainan. Survey of microplastics with surface seawater were studied and analyzed in November 2022. Results revealed that microplastics abundance were ranged from 0.10~0.49 particles/m
3, with the mean was 0.29±0.11 particles/m
3. As the distance from the shore increasing, abundance were generally showed a decreasing trends from estuaries to nearshore areas, obviously affected by terrestrial inputs. Components were mainly dominated by polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), with proportion were 36.1% and 25.4%, respectively. Sizes were mainly composed of microplastics with a diameter ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 mm, which accounted for 58.6%. Shapes were dominated by fragmented microplastics, with proportion were 67.4%. And colors were made up of translucent and white microplastics were in the majority, with proportion were 71.6%. Results also showed that there were not significant ecological risk in estuaries of Changhua river, and microplastics abundance were still at a low pollution levels, when compared with domestic and foreign studies.