Abstract
Microplastic pollution in the riverine ecosystems has caught many attentions in the scientific literatures. However, little information is available about the abundance and distribution of microplastics of the rivers discharging to the Caspian Sea. The aim of this study was to assess the spatial and seasonal distribution of microplastics in the surface waters of thirteen rivers discharging to the southern Caspian Sea. Microplastics were found in all stations with uneven distributions. The average concentrations of microplastics in the stations during snowmelt and dry seasons were 1.406 ± 0.1380 microplastics/m3 and 0.4070 ± 0.01500 microplastics/m3, respectively. Positive gradients of the rivers microplastics concentration from upstream to downstream were found. White/transparent polyethylene (PE) particles with the shape of fragment/film and the length (L) of ≤ 1 mm were the most common microplastics in the surface waters of the rivers discharging to the southern Caspian Sea. Also, the mean concentration of microplastics in spring snowmelt and runoff period was 3.45 times higher than in dry period. Factors such as sewage and household wastes; landfills; and recreational-tourism, fishing and agricultural activities along the rivers may contribute to microplastic contamination in downstream stations. Our data provide baseline information of microplastics in surface waters of rivers discharging to the southern Caspian Sea.
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Data availability
The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (INIOAS) for supporting this project.
Funding
This work was supported by the Iranian National Institute for Oceanography and Atmospheric Science (Project No. 399–011-01–011-02).
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Ahmad Manbohi: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Software; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Roles/Writing—original draft. Ali Mehdinia: Conceptualization; Supervision; Resources; Methodology. Reza Rahnama: Formal analysis; Data curation; Methodology; Visualization. Ali Hamzehpour: Formal analysis; Methodology; Visualization. Reza Dehbandi: Writing—original draft, Formal analysis.
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Manbohi, A., Mehdinia, A., Rahnama, R. et al. Distribution of microplastics in upstream and downstream surface waters of the Iranian rivers discharging to the southern Caspian Sea. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 92359–92370 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28898-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28898-8