Seasonal Abundance and Distribution Patterns of Microplastics in the Lis River, Portugal

Bárbara Sá, Joana Pais, Joana Antunes, João Pequeno, Ana Pires and Paula Sobral
Additional contact information
Bárbara Sá: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Joana Pais: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Joana Antunes: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
João Pequeno: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Ana Pires: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Paula Sobral: MARE—Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: The majority of microplastics (MP) found in the marine environment have land-based sources and rivers are known as carriers of these particles to the ocean. This work is the first to study MP in the Lis River Basin and coastal shoreline (total nine sampling sites) and the potential relationship with inputs from 105 companies/units. We report the seasonal abundance, typology, colour, size, and polymer distribution of MP in surface water and sediment. To the collected samples, a digestion protocol was applied, followed by filtration. For sediment, an MP density separation was performed prior to filtration. MP were mostly fibres (0.02 to 1111.11 items.m −3 in water and 10.66 to 1609.64 items.kg −1 in sediment) and fragments (0.02 to 2311.11 items.m −3 in water and 10.66 to 501.01 items.kg −1 in sediment). The most frequent colours were transparent and blue, and MP were mostly smaller than 1 mm in water and 2 mm in sediment samples. The most abundant polymers in water were polyethylene (37%), polyacrylate (18%) and polystyrene (18%), and in sediment, polyethylene terephthalate (29%) and polyacrylate (23%). Population density, plastic processing companies and meteorological factors were found to be associated with seasonal MP abundance and distribution patterns in the Lis River Basin.

Keywords: microplastics; seasonal variation; polymers; sources; Lis River; Portugal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2255/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2255/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2255-:d:751049

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().