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Potentially Toxic Elements’ Accumulation in Relation to Sediment Physicochemical Attributes and Microplastic Content in Zayandeh-Rood River, Iran

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Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging pollutant whose ability to adsorb potentially toxic elements (PTEs) poses a serious threat to aquatic ecosystems, including rivers. In highly developed basins, the abundance of MPs in river sediment is expected to be high, elevating the sedimentary accumulation of PTEs. This hypothesis was tested in the Zayandeh-Rood River, Central Iran, with 21 sediment sampling stations distributed along the entire river stretch. Results of sediment analysis showed significant variations in the abundance and size of MPs, with concentrations ranked as Ba (270.71 mg/kg) > Li (21.29 mg/kg) > Cs (2.50 mg/kg) > Be (1.44 mg/kg) > Sn (1.17 mg/kg) > Mo (1.06 mg/kg) > Ag (0.76 mg/kg), along with sediment physicochemical attributes such as EC, TOC, pH and grain size. MPs were identified in all sediment samples with a mean of 588 items/kg dry weight. Except for Ag, all other PTEs were classified as uncontaminated but exhibited increased enrichment downstream. According to the results of the generalized additive model (maximum R-sq of 0.766), the sedimentary concentration of the majority of PTEs is nonlinearly and positively associated with smaller and more abundant MPs. This study acknowledges that MPs might influence sediment porosity, permeability and structure, thereby directly affecting the settling dynamics of other particles, especially PTEs.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

    Mokarrameh Behmanesh

  2. Environmental Science and Engineering Department, Waste and Wastewater Research Center, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

    Atefeh Chamani

  3. Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

    Elham Chavoshi

Authors
  1. Mokarrameh Behmanesh
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Contributions

MB presented conceptualization, methodology and software. AC provided data curation and writing—original draft preparation. EC prepared software and validation.

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Correspondence to Atefeh Chamani.

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Behmanesh, M., Chamani, A. & Chavoshi, E. Potentially Toxic Elements’ Accumulation in Relation to Sediment Physicochemical Attributes and Microplastic Content in Zayandeh-Rood River, Iran. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 86, 274–287 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-024-01059-9

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