| A large amount of plastic waste ends up in aquatic environments. These plastics then break down through mechanical or biochemical degradation and can become increasingly smaller in size. Though these microplastics may not be visible to the naked eye, they are still present and can be more easily ingested by organisms. Moreover, microplastics pose a potential threat to aquatic organisms as well as their transfer through the trophic chain, which has impacts on human health. The main goal of this project is to map the microplastics pollution in Yangcheng lake, which is a famous crab culturing lake in China. Freshwater samples at the surface of the lake were collected and analyzed using Confocal Raman spectroscopy to determine microplastics abundance, size, shape, and chemical composition in the aquatic environment. Especially, the focus of this study was on microplastics in sub 20μm due to the large proportion of microplastics in the water environment in this size range. By understanding the source and fate of the detected microplastics, this study also tried to analyze the environmental and human impacts exposed to the ecosystem of Yangcheng Lake. We hope to raise people’s awareness of microplastics, strengthen the detection and monitoring of microplastics in food and ecological environment. |
