Existence of microplastics in soil and groundwater in Jiaodong Peninsula

¹ Institute of Coastal Environmental Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education
² College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China

^* Corresponding author: lingq@ouc.edu.cn

Abstract

Microplastic pollution has become a major global problem demanding prompt solution. So far, most research has focused on marine environment, but there is a lack of information about microplastic distribution, and persistence uptake in coastal soil environment. In this study, the Huangshui River Basin in Laizhou Bay and Dagu River Basin in Jiaozhou Bay of Shandong Province of China was taken as the research area. A total of 3,352 microplastic items were collected from 12 samples from the four sites in this study. The results showed that local soil was already affected by microplastics, of which 92.9% were particles, 6.1% were fibers, and only 1% were films. The existence of film PE indicated that the microplastic pollution in soil probably came from the plastic film. The degree of pollution was correlated with the size, and the size of microplastics was negatively correlated with abundance. Only a few labelled fibers were detected in groundwater samples, which may come from the external environment. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of environmental microplastic pollution in the coastal region.