Occurrence and distribution of microplastics on recreational beaches of Haichow Bay, China
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Occurrence and distribution of microplastics on recreational beaches of Haichow Bay, China Xiaowei Wu 1,2 & Chongqing Zhong 2,3 & Teng Wang 4 & Xinqing Zou 2
&
Zheng Zang 3 & Qunji Li 1 & Han Chen 1
Received: 3 June 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract As prime coastal recreational areas, beaches attract an increasing number of users worldwide. However, current studies have shown that beaches are subject to plastic pollution, one of the most significant global environmental threats. Considering the health of tourists and ecological environmental management of beaches, microplastics on recreational beaches are urgently being studied. This paper first focused on microplastics on the recreational beaches of Haichow Bay, which is located on the central coast of China and faces the Yellow Sea. The microplastic pollution level, occurrence, and distribution were investigated. Our study demonstrated that microplastics were consistently found on all studied beaches, which emphasized their extensive distribution throughout recreational beaches. The average microplastic abundance was 106.50 ± 34.41 items/kg, demonstrating that the microplastic pollution level on the studied beaches tended to be in the middle-to-low position compared with previous studies. In total, eight colors were found, more than 90% of microplastics were less than 1 mm in size, and fiber and fragments were the dominant shapes. Resort beaches contained the highest number of microplastics, indicating that the microplastic pollution level on recreational beaches was directly related to the tourism intensity. Five types of plastic were found in the samples, i.e., polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), PS (polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and nylon. Land inputs were the main source of pollution. This study provided baseline information on microplastic pollution that can be used for effective and comprehensive management of recreational beaches and suggests that the management of plastic use and recycling on beaches should be integrated into China's’coastal zone management practices. Keywords Microplastic pollution . Recreational beach . Occurrence and distribution . Beach management . Haichow Bay . China
Introduction Microplastics (< 5 mm), as a new type of pollutant, have been found to be ubiquitous in coastal areas and have become one
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues * Xinqing Zou [email protected] 1
School of History, Culture and Tourism, Huaiyin Normal University, Huai’an 223300, China
2
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
3
School of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Huaiyin Normal University, Huai’an 223300, China
4
College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing 210093, China
of the most important environmental problems that has attracted worldwide attention (Thompson et al. 2004, 2009; Qiu et al. 2015; Lozoya et al. 2016; Karthik et al. 2018; Wang et al. 2018). Microplastics
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