Microplastic Contamination in Urban, Farmland and Desert Environments along a Highway in Southern Xinjiang, China

Wenfeng Li, Shuzhi Wang, Rehemanjiang Wufuer, Jia Duo and Xiangliang Pan
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Wenfeng Li: National Engineering Technology Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi 830011, China
Shuzhi Wang: National Engineering Technology Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi 830011, China
Rehemanjiang Wufuer: National Engineering Technology Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi 830011, China
Jia Duo: National Engineering Technology Research Center for Desert-Oasis Ecological Construction, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 818 South Beijing Road, Urumqi 830011, China
Xiangliang Pan: Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution and Bioremediation, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-12

Abstract: The different types of microplastics (MPs), including debris, fibers, particles, foams, films and others, have become a global environmental problem. However, there is still a lack of research and understanding of the pollution characteristics and main causes of MPs in the arid region of Xinjiang, China. In this survey, we focused on the occurrence and distribution of MPs in urban, farmland and desert areas along a highway in the survey area. Our results showed that the main types of MPs were polypropylene (PP) flakes, polyethylene (PE) films and both PE and PP fragments and fibers. The abundance levels of MPs in street dust of Korla, Alar and Hotan districts equaled 804, 307 and 1526 particles kg −1 , respectively, and were positively correlated with the urban population. In farmland areas, there were only two types of MPs (films and fibers), of which the film particles dominated and accounted for 91% of the total on the average. The highest abundance rate of MPs reached 7292 particles kg −1 in the desert area along the highway. The minimum microplastic particle sizes were 51.8 ± 2.2 μm in urban street dust samples, 54.2 ± 5.3 μm in farmland soil samples and 67.8 ± 8.4 μm in samples from along the desert highway. Particle sizes < 500 μm were most common and accounted for 48–91% of the total in our survey. The abundance and shape distribution of the MPs were closely related to the different types of human activities.

Keywords: microplastics; distribution; shape categories; abundance; southern Xinjiang (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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