Microplastic (MP) pollution in the Yangtze River Basin, China, has become an environmental issue of great concern. However, most studies on MPs have focused on a part of the Yangtze River Basin, and still lack knowledge on the risk of MPs exposure in surface waters of the whole basin. This study overviews the differences in abundance and spatial distribution of MPs in surface waters basin-wide and comprehensively assesses the ecological risk of MPs exposure in surface waters of the Yangtze River Basin by considering the abundance and toxicity effects. The results showed that the MP abundance at the collected sampling sites ranged from 0 to 44,080 particles/m, with a mean of 3441 particles/m. MPs were unevenly distributed throughout the basin, with hotspots such as Three Gorges Reservoir, Yangtze River estuary, and some urban lakes showing relatively higher abundance than the surroundings. Based on the available toxicity data, chronic and acute predicted no-effect concentrations (PNECs) of 12.3 particles/L and 21 particles/L were derived for freshwater MPs exposure using constructed species sensitivity distributions (SSDs). The hazard quotient (HQ) method was used to compare the environmental exposure concentrations of MPs with PNECs, and the results showed that 71.8% of the sampling sites in the Yangtze River Basin had moderate chronic ecological risk, while 43% of the sampling sites had moderate acute ecological risk. Overall, the ecological risk of MPs in lake and reservoir water was higher than that in river water. Joint probability curves (JPCs) showed that the overall risk probability of MPs in the surface water of the Yangtze River Basin was lower than that of other basins in China and other countries. This research provides valuable information for the ecological risk assessment of MPs at the watershed scale.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122086 | DOI Listing |
Environ Pollut
January 2025
The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK; Hubei Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources Processing and Environment, School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China. Electronic address:
This work is the first comprehensive survey of the Yangtze River, covering its origin to the estuary mouth. It focuses on the geographical and industrial factors influencing the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments, along with their contamination levels, sources, and ecological risks. The total concentrations of PAHs ranged from 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Res
January 2025
The Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Health Risk Assessment, Research Center of Emerging Contaminants, South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Guangzhou 510655, P.R. China.
Organic contaminants (OCs) are released into the environment through effluent discharges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), posing risks to environment health. However, emissions from various source, particularly large-scale investigations across different industries, remain poorly understood. Based on both sampling and statistical data, this study estimates the emissions of 10 OCs, including perfluorooctane acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), 4-nonylphenol (4-NP), 4-tert-octylphenol (4-t-OP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di-iso-butyl phthalate (DIBP), dimethyl phthalate (DMP), butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), and bisphenol A (BPA), from the effluents of 160 factories across 8 industries, 541 municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTPs), and 8 waste treatment plants (WTPs) in the upper Yangtze River Basin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc
January 2025
Key Laboratory of Spectral Imaging Technology, Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710119 China. Electronic address:
Non-optically active water quality parameters (NAWQPs) are essential for surface water quality assessments, although automated monitoring methods are time-consuming, include labor-intensive chemical pretreatment, and pose challenges for high spatiotemporal resolution monitoring. Advancements in spectroscopic techniques and machine learning may address these issues. We integrated ultraviolet-visible-near infrared absorption spectroscopy with physical-chemical measurements to predict total nitrogen (TN), dissolved oxygen (DO), and total phosphorus (TP) in the Yangtze River Basin, China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Environ Manage
January 2025
Hubei Subsurface Multi-scale Imaging Key Laboratory, School of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China.
Groundwater plays a key role in the water cycle and is used to meet industrial, agricultural, and domestic water demands. High-resolution modeling of groundwater storage is often challenging due to the limitations of observation techniques and mathematical methods. In this study, two machine learning (ML) algorithms, namely random forest (RF) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), were employed to estimate groundwater level anomaly (GWLA) and groundwater storage anomaly (GWSA) with a 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFiScience
January 2025
Technology R&D Center, Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Inc., Kunming 650000, China.
The construction of dams to intercept natural rivers constitutes the most severe human activity influencing the underlying surface. This study focuses on four cascade reservoirs of the Lancang River and explores their impact on the migration of organic matter in sediments. The research reveals significant spatial variations in total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen concentrations in the sediments of the four reservoirs.
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