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Microplastic abundance, distribution, and diversity in water and sediments along a subtropical river system

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Abstract

Microplastic pollution in aquatic environments has been a ubiquitous concern in recent years, owing to their rapid production combined with poor waste management practices. However, information on freshwater microplastics in the Global South is still scarce, despite growing research on freshwater microplastics in recent years, particularly within the Global North. To help address this knowledge gap, we studied water and sediment microplastic dynamics along a subtropical river system, i.e. Crocodile River around the Nelspruit City area (South Africa), across three different seasons (i.e. cool-dry, hot-dry, hot-wet) using a combination of diversity indices and multivariate analyses. Microplastics were more abundant during the cool-dry season in the surface water samples (mean 1058 particles m−3) and high during the hot-dry season (mean 568 particles kg−1 dwt) in the sediment samples. The hot-wet season had a low particle density in both surface water (mean 625 particles m−3) and sediments (mean 86 particles kg−1 dwt) samples. Microplastic shapes were dominated by fibres and fragments, with the colour scheme dominated by transparent, blue, and black. The abundance of microplastics was positively correlated with pH and resistivity, and negatively with river flow. Wastewater was attributed as a primary source of microplastics, particularly because of the observed dominant fibre microplastics, usually released during laundry. Our results suggest that Crocodile River and its tributaries are temporary sinks of microplastics during periods of low rainfall. Implications of this pollution are far-reaching, including effects on residents who are dependent on the Crocodile River as a source of drinking water and aquatic biota which may be exposed to these pollutants.

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All the data collected during this research is presented in the manuscript.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Nelisiwe Ngomane, Nombuso Themba, and Fannie Masina for assisting in the field. We would like to thank Tarombera Mwabvu for allowing us to use his laboratory microscopes.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Research Foundation Thuthuka grant (#138206). N. W. was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#52279068). R. N. C. was funded by the Leverhulme Trust (#ECF-2021-001).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aquatic Systems Research Group, School of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit, 1200, South Africa

    Masimini S. Nkosi, Purvance Shikwambana & Tatenda Dalu

  2. Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, BT9 5DL, Belfast, UK

    Ross N. Cuthbert

  3. Department of Geography and Spatial Information Techniques, Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315211, China

    Naicheng Wu

  4. Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Wallenberg Research Centre at Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

    Tatenda Dalu

Authors
  1. Masimini S. Nkosi
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  4. Purvance Shikwambana
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  5. Tatenda Dalu
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Contributions

M. S. N.: formal analysis, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing — original draft, review, and editing; R. N. C.: conceptualisation, methodology, visualisation, funding acquisition, supervision, writing — original draft, review, and editing; N. W.: methodology, visualisation, writing — original draft, review, and editing; P. S.: investigation, methodology, visualisation, writing — original draft, review, and editing; T. D.: conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, supervision, funding acquisition, writing — original draft, review, and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatenda Dalu.

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Ethical approval

The study animal ethics permit was approved by the University of Mpumalanga Animal Ethics Committee (# AS/TDalu 01-150322). Sample collection permits were granted by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency permit number: MPB5758.

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All authors consented to the participation in this manuscript and were fully involved.

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All authors consented to the publication of this manuscript.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Supplementary information

ESM 1

Table S1 Detailed site descriptions and geographical locations (coordinates) of each site visited for water and sediment sample collection along the Crocodile River system within the Nelspruit area, South Africa. (DOCX 13 kb)

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Nkosi, .S., Cuthbert, R.N., Wu, N. et al. Microplastic abundance, distribution, and diversity in water and sediments along a subtropical river system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 91440–91452 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28842-w

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