Investigation on Microplastics occurrence in sediments of coastal areas of Caspian Sea, Mazandaran province (study areas: Babolsar and Sari shoreline)

Document Type : scientific research article

Authors

1 Gonbad Kavous University

2 Offshore Water Research Center, Iranian Fisheries Science Research Institute, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, Chabahar, Iran.

3 faculty member

4 Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fisheries, Munzur University, TR62000, Tunceli, Turkey.

5 Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Marine Science and Technology, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran

Abstract

This study examines the characteristic of microplastics (MPs) in sediments collected from the coastal areas of the southern Caspian Sea, Mazandaran province (Babolsar and Sari cities). Twelve sites for sediment sampling selected during 2022. MPs identification detected primarily under stereomicroscope and then ascertains and discovers their polymer composition by ATR-FTIR. The results showed that Babolsar areas, with 5 meters far from the shoreline, had the most abundance (660±165.15items/Kg). On the other hand, Sari station with 500 meters far from the shoreline contained the least MPs (220±81.33). Average number of detected MPs in all samples was 406.66±161.33. Fibers (80.33%) were the most abundant MPs, whereas films (3.28%) detected the least. In the case of size, the range of 1000-3000µm showed the most abundant MPs (39.34%) and MPs less than 2 µm the least ones (4.10%). Gray and black (50.82%) was the dominant color and yellow (3.28%) was rarely detected color (3.28%). Polymer constituent of examined MPs includes: (PET: 30%); (PS: 20%); (PA: 20%); and (PP: 15%). The findings of this study revealed that MPs occurrence in coastal sediments distribute from several sources; including tourism as well as wastewaters and packaging. These activities cause entering plastic litters along the coastal areas and their degradation accelerated t MPs distribution.

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Journal of Utilization and Cultivation of Aquatics
Volume 13, Issue 2
July 2024
Pages 143-156

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