Spatial distribution of meso and microplastics in the sediments of river Ganga at eastern India

Dhruba Jyoti Sarkar; Soma Das Sarkar; Basanta Kumar Das; Ranjan Kumar Manna; Bijay Kumar Behera; Srikanta Samanta

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133712

Spatial distribution of meso and microplastics in the sediments of river Ganga at eastern India

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Dec 1:694:133712. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133712. Epub 2019 Aug 1.

Authors

Dhruba Jyoti Sarkar¹, Soma Das Sarkar¹, Basanta Kumar Das², Ranjan Kumar Manna¹, Bijay Kumar Behera¹, Srikanta Samanta¹

Affiliations

¹ ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Kolkata, 700120, India.
² ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Kolkata, 700120, India. Electronic address: basantakumard@gmail.com.

PMID: 31400677
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.133712

Abstract

Small plastic debris is one of the most significant emerging pollutants, due to their extreme durability and synthetic nature, possessing a tremendous threat to the aquatic environment. In the present study, sediments of river Ganga at a lower stretch were analyzed for distribution of meso and microplastics at seven different locations viz. Buxar, Patna, Bhagalpur, Nabadwip, Barrackpore, Godakhali and Fraserganj. All the sediments were found to contain mesoplastics (>5 mm) and microplastics (<5 mm) particles with varying degree of the mass fraction (11.48 to 63.79 ng/g sediments), numerical abundance (99.27-409.86 items/kg) and morphotypes. Analysis of the mesoplastics with FT-IR revealed polyethylene terepthalate (39%) as the major contributing plastic debris in the sediments followed by polyethylene (30%). Statistical analysis revealed a strong correlation between microplastics abundance and the pollution traits, BOD and available phosphate, of water and sediment, respectively. This study exhibits the spatial distribution of meso and microplastics in the highly populated locations along the river Ganga emphasizing the attention to be given to this emerging pollutant in the inland river system underlining their role as a transporter of plastic fragments finally to the ocean.

Keywords: Environmental parameter; Ganga; Mesoplastics; Microplastics; Sediment.