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Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis
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Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Pollution Prevention, Mitigation and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 8392

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Anish Kumar Warrier

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for Climate Studies, Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India
Interests: microplastic pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microplastics are an emerging class of contaminants that are omnipresent in our environments. Plastics of all sizes are found in water bodies such as groundwater, rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal seas, and deep oceans. The global scientific community is concerned about the impacts of microplastics on biota as well as on human beings. Microplastics are also vectors of other pollutants, such as heavy metals and organic contaminants. However, there is insufficient knowledge of the spatial and temporal variations of microplastics and their relationship with other environmental factors. This Special Issue titled “Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis” invites original contributions on recent developments in the area of microplastic pollution. Emphasis will be laid upon the spatiotemporal distribution of microplastics in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. New research work related to innovative methods of sampling and the detection of microplastics using advanced instrumentation are invited.

Specific topics can include but are not limited to the following:

  • Microplastic pollution in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
  • Spatial and temporal variations of microplastic pollutants.
  • New instrumental techniques for studying microplastics.
  • Microplastic pollution in biota.

Dr. Anish Kumar Warrier
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • microplastics
  • risk assessment
  • spatiotemporal distribution
  • water bodies
  • land ecosystem
  • polymer composition
  • biological effects

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 7631 KiB  
Article
Tire Wear Monitoring Approach for Hotspot Identification in Road Deposited Sediments from a Metropolitan City in Germany
by Daniel Venghaus, Johannes Wolfgang Neupert and Matthias Barjenbruch
Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 12029; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151512029 - 5 Aug 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1981
Abstract
Plastic in the environment poses an increasing challenge. Microplastics, which include tire wear, enter the aquatic environment via different pathways, and increasing vehicle traffic leads to increased tire wear. This paper describes an approach for how inner-city tire wear hotspots can systematically be [...] Read more.
Plastic in the environment poses an increasing challenge. Microplastics, which include tire wear, enter the aquatic environment via different pathways, and increasing vehicle traffic leads to increased tire wear. This paper describes an approach for how inner-city tire wear hotspots can systematically be identified by sampling road-deposited sediments (RDS) by sweeping. Within the investigations herein described, six inner-city monitoring sites were sampled. The total masses of solids as well as the amount of styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) representing Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) were determined. It was shown that the sites differ significantly from each other with regard to SBR parts. The amount of SBR in the curve was on average eight times higher than in the slope, and in the area of the traffic lights, it was on average three times higher than in the slope. The RDS mass results also differ but with a factor of 2 for the curve and of 1.5 for the traffic light. The investigations and the corresponding results in this paper are unique, and the monitoring approach can be used in the future to derive and optimize sustainable measures in order to reduce the discharge of TRWP into the environment by road runoff. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis)
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16 pages, 2726 KiB  
Article
Microplastics in Harbour Seawaters: A Case Study in the Port of Gdynia, Baltic Sea
by Alina Dereszewska, Katarzyna Krasowska and Marzenna Popek
Sustainability 2023, 15(8), 6678; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086678 - 14 Apr 2023
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3809
Abstract
An important source of microplastics (MPs) in the Baltic Sea waters is plastic waste, which is fragmented in the natural environment. The pilot research on the identification of microplastics in the surface waters of the Port of Gdynia is presented. In this paper, [...] Read more.
An important source of microplastics (MPs) in the Baltic Sea waters is plastic waste, which is fragmented in the natural environment. The pilot research on the identification of microplastics in the surface waters of the Port of Gdynia is presented. In this paper, microplastics of particle sizes 0.3–5 mm in harbour seawaters were investigated. Microplastics were collected from five harbour basins using an unmanned mobile research unit, HydroDron-1. Sampling of microplastics on the surface port water was conducted over four seasons. The collected plastic particles were separated by chemical oxidation and flotation in the NaCl solution (density 1.2 g/cm3). Polymer identification was carried out by visual and microscopic observations, as well as using the Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. Based on tows conducted in five basins of the Port of Gdynia, in total, the concentration of microplastics identified ranged from 0.082 mg/m3 to 0.524 mg/m3, depending on the investigated basin. Four groups of microplastic shapes (fragments, films, fibres and spheres) were detected in all the investigated harbour basins. Fragments and fibres were prevalent when categorised by particle shape, whereas when categorised by colour, transparent, white and black particles were dominant. The predominant type of the identified polymers was polyolefins (PE, PP, PS) and their derivatives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis)
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13 pages, 2689 KiB  
Article
First Evidence of Microplastic Presence in Bed Load Sediments of a Small Urban Stream in Warsaw
by Adam Krajewski, Agnieszka Hejduk and Leszek Hejduk
Sustainability 2022, 14(23), 16017; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142316017 - 30 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1939
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) are considered as a contaminant of widespread global concern. Due to their small size, MPs become bioavailable to many types of organisms and affect them. However, there is still little known about MP release on land, storage in soils and sediments, [...] Read more.
Microplastics (MPs) are considered as a contaminant of widespread global concern. Due to their small size, MPs become bioavailable to many types of organisms and affect them. However, there is still little known about MP release on land, storage in soils and sediments, or their transport by runoff in rivers. Thus, the aim of this work was to present the results of the first, initial investigation on microplastic presence in an urban stream located in Warsaw, Poland. A simple and relatively inexpensive procedure that leads step-by-step to the detection of microplastics in bed load sediment is presented. It consists of sampling, sieving, density separation, organic matter reduction, and Nile Red staining. The presence of MP in the channel of Służew Creek was confirmed. The estimated amount of particles ranged from 191 to 279 pieces per 30 g of bed load sediment for the selected sampling sites. The number of particles seemed to increase with the catchment area. There is a need for further broad research focusing, among others, on the standardization of methods and laboratory procedures leading to microplastic detection. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microplastic Pollution in the Environment: Detect, Documentation, and Analysis)
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