Abundance and distribution characteristics of microplastic in plateau cultivated land of Yunnan Province, China

Huang, Bin; Sun, Leiye; Liu, Mengran; Huang, Haiyou; He, Huan; Han, Fengxia; Wang, Xiaoxia; Xu, Zhixiang; Li, Bei; Pan, Xuejun

doi:10.1007/s11356-020-10527-3

Research Article
Published: 26 August 2020

Abundance and distribution characteristics of microplastic in plateau cultivated land of Yunnan Province, China

Bin Huang^1,2,
Leiye Sun¹,
Mengran Liu³,
Haiyou Huang¹,
Huan He¹,
Fengxia Han ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6321-4274^1,4,
Xiaoxia Wang¹,
Zhixiang Xu¹,
Bei Li¹ &
Xuejun Pan^1,2

Environmental Science and Pollution Research volume 28, pages 1675–1688 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Microplastic pollution in cultivated soil has received increasing attention recently. There may be more serious microplastic abundance but little research has been done in cultivated soil in plateau areas. To survey the pollution characteristics of microplastics in inland cultivated soil, 100 soil samples collected from 10 counties of Yunnan Province were investigated through density separation and microscopic examination. The research results showed that microplastic abundance was in the range of 0.9 × 10³ to 40.8 × 10³ particles (kg Ds)⁻¹ with average abundance of 9.8 × 10³ particles (kg Ds)⁻¹. Moreover, compared with other studies on sediments, it was found that microplastic abundance in inland soil was one order of magnitude higher than that in offshore sediments. The use of plastic mulch and its long-term residue in cultivated soil was an important reason for microplastic pollution. In this survey, various morphologies of microplastics existed, including fragment (78.3%), transparent/translucency (49.7%), and micro-size microplastics (< 500 μm) (89.3%). And the microplastic morphologies occurred in different degrees of aging phenomenon under the influence of the environment factors such as ultraviolet radiation. The findings provided the pollution status of microplastics in cultivated soil, and more attention should be paid to inland soil microplastic pollution.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by Applied Basic Research Foundation of Yunnan Province, China (grant 2019FB015).

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Affiliations

Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China
Bin Huang, Leiye Sun, Haiyou Huang, Huan He, Fengxia Han, Xiaoxia Wang, Zhixiang Xu, Bei Li & Xuejun Pan
Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Carbon Sequestration and Pollution Control in Soils, Kunming, 650500, China
Bin Huang & Xuejun Pan
Yunnan Provincial Agricultural Environmental Protection Monitoring Station, Kunming, 650000, China
Mengran Liu
Innovation and Development Institute, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, China
Fengxia Han

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Bin Huang
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Leiye Sun
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Mengran Liu
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Haiyou Huang
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Huan He
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Fengxia Han
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Xiaoxia Wang
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Zhixiang Xu
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Bei Li
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Xuejun Pan
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Highlights

• This is a systematic survey on microplastic distribution in cultivated lands.

• Microplastic pollution generally and seriously occurs in inland soil.

• Plastic mulch was confirmed as a main resource of microplastic pollution.

• Micro-size (< 500 μm) transparent/translucent fragments were the main morphology.

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Huang, B., Sun, L., Liu, M. et al. Abundance and distribution characteristics of microplastic in plateau cultivated land of Yunnan Province, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 1675–1688 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10527-3

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Received: 07 May 2020
Accepted: 13 August 2020
Published: 26 August 2020
Issue Date: January 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-10527-3

Keywords

Microplastic contamination
Cultivated soil
Spatial distribution
Mulch
Microplastic morphology