Table 1.
Microplastic studies in water of inland water bodies around the world
| Study compartment | Number | Study area | Sampling tools | Dominant microplastic characteristics (shape, polymer type, size) | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| River–estuary | 1 | Three Gorges Dam—China | Trawl with a rectangular opening 50 cm high by 100 cm wide, and1.5 m long, 112-mm-mesh size nylon net with a 500-mL polyethylene collecting bottle at the end | Sheets, PP, 500 µm–1.6 mm | Zhang et al. (2015) |
| 2 | The North Shore Channel (NSC) in Chicago, Illinois (IL), USA | Two neuston nets (0.92 × 0.42 m and 0.36 × 0.41 m), 333 μm mesh size | Fiber | McCormick et al. (2014) | |
| 3 | 29 Great Lakes tributaries, USA | Neuston net 1.5-m-long net with an opening 100 cm wide by 40 cm high, 333 μm mesh size | Fibers, 0.355–0.999 mm | Baldwin et al. (2016) | |
| 4 | Inflow (Red and Assiniboine rivers) and outflow (Nelson River) of LakeWinnipeg, Canada | Manta trawl 295 cm long, an aperture width of 61 cm, and a heightof 18 cm, 333 µm mesh size | Fibers | Warrack et al. (2018) | |
| 5 | Tamar Estuary, UK | Manta net 0.50 m by 0.15 m, 300 µm mesh size | Fragments, PE, 1–3 mm | Sadri and Thompson (2014) | |
| 6 | Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, USA | Manta trawl 0.9 m × 0.15 m, 333 µm mesh size, hand nets 0.46 m × 0.25 m, 800 µm mesh size and 0.43 m × 0.22 m, 500 µm mesh size, streambed 0.15 m × 0.15 m, 333 mesh size, rectangular net 0.45 m × 0.25 m, 333 mesh size | Foams, PS, ≥ 1 mm and < 4.75 mm | Moore et al. (2011) | |
| 7 | Danube River, Austria | Stationary conical drift nets 0.5 m diameter, 1.5 m long, 500 µm mesh size | – | Lechner et al. (2014) | |
| 8 | Four Estuarine Rivers in the Chesapeake Bay ( Patapsco, Magothy, Rhode, and Corsica rivers), USA | Manta net 70 cm wide, 330 µm mesh size | – | Yonkos et al. (2014) | |
| 9 | Yangtze Estuary and East China Sea, China | Teflon pump passed through a 32-µm steel sieve, neuston trawl 30 × 40 cm2 opening, 333 µm mesh size | Fibers, > 0.5–1 mm | Zhao et al. (2014) | |
| 10 | Rhine River—Switzerland | Manta trawl with rectangular opening of 60 cm × 18 cm, mesh 300 µm mesh size | Opaque spherules, PS | Mani et al. (2015) | |
| 11 | Solent estuarine complex ( Hamble, Itchen and Test rivers), UK | Plankton net trawl, 300 µm mesh size | Fibers, blue, black, clear, white | Gallagher et al. (2016) | |
| 12 | Three urban estuaries ( Jiaojiang, Minjiang and Oujiang Estuaries), China | Teflon pump passed through a 333-µm steel sieve | Fibers, PP, < 0.5–1 mm, < 1–2 mm | Zhao et al. (2015) | |
| 13 | Pearl River along Guangzhou city and Pearl River estuary, China | Water sampler passed through a 50-µm stainless steel sieve | Films, PA, < 0.5 mm | Yan et al. (2019) | |
| 14 | Saigon River, Vietnam | A bucket and plankton net, 300 µm mesh size | Fibers, PES | Lahens et al. (2018) | |
| 15 | Hudson River, USA | Grab sample, metal bucket (3L) | Fibers, PET | Miller et al. (2017) | |
| 16 | Raritan River, New Jersey, USA | Plankton nets 0.2 m diameter, 0.51 m long, 153 mm mesh size | – | Estahbanati and Fahrenfeld (2016) | |
| 17 | Rivers State, Nigeria | Plankton net | – | Briggs et al. (2019) | |
| 18 | Meuse, Rhine, Europe | – | Fibers | Brandsma et al. (2013) | |
| 19 | Goose Creek, Little Kickapoo Creek, and East Branch of the DuPage River, USA | Neuston nets 0.52 m × 0.36 m, 333 µm mesh size | Pellets, PE | McCormick et al. (2016) | |
| 20 | Rhine, Dalålven, Danube and Po Rivers, Europe | Manta net internal width 60 cm, 330 μm mesh size, Pump, waste free water sampler mesh size 3.2 mm | Fragments, pellets, PE | van der Wal et al. (2015) | |
| 21 | Jade system, south North Sea, Germany | Grab sample, PE bottle (100 ml) passed through 1.2-μm cellulose nitrate filters | Fibers | Dubaish and Liebezeit (2013) | |
| 22 | Snake River and Palisades Reservoir, USA | – | Fibers | McDevitt and Perez (2016) | |
| 23 | 29 Rivers, Japan | Plankton net 30 cm × 75 cm, 335 µm mesh size | – | Kataoka et al. (2019) | |
| 24 | Snake River and Columbia River, USA | Grab sample, glass jars, mean volume 1.85 L, plankton net, 100 μm mesh size | Fibers, 100–333 µm | Kapp and Yeatman (2018) | |
| 25 | Rhine River, Germany | Manta trawl 60 cm × 18 cm rectangular aperture, 300 µm mesh size | PS-DVB ion-exchange resins | Mani et al. (2019a) | |
| 26 | Gallatin River watershed, USA | Grab sample, stainless steel bottles (1L) | Fibers, Semi-synthetic cellulose, PES, 0.1–1.5 mm | Barrows et al. (2018) | |
| 27 | Changjiang Estuary, China | A screw pump (100 L) passed through a stainless steel sieve 60 μm pore size | Fiber, PE | Zhao et al. (2019) | |
| 28 | Changjiang Estuary, China | A pump (100 L) passed through stainless steel sieve 70 μm mesh size | Fibers, PE0.07–1.0 mm | Xu et al. (2018) | |
| 29 | Pasig River, Philippines | Two Manta trawl 25.7 cm diameter openingand 10.4 cm diameter opening, 355 µm mesh size | Fragments, 1.16 ± 0.42 mm | Deocaris et al. (2019) | |
| 30 | Danube River, Austria | Net 600 × 600 mm opening, 500, 250, 41 µm mesh size, BFG basket sampler 300 × 600 mm opening, 500 µm mesh size | – | Liedermann et al. (2018 | |
| 31 | Muskegon River, Milwaukee River, and St. Joseph River, USA | Grab samples, 2-L glass bottle passed through a 0.363 μm mesh (surfaces water), Wading seine nets (biota) | Fibers, < 1.5 mm | McNeish et al. (2018) | |
| 32 | Clyde, Bega and Hunter estuaries, Australia | Horizontal surface tows using 45 μm mesh size (biota), vertical towl 37 μm net (biota) | Fragments, 45–100 µm | Hitchcock and Mitrovic (2019) | |
| 33 | Douro estuary, Portugal | A conical 1 m diameter, 4 m long, 500 μm mesh size (biota) | – | Rodrigues et al. (2019) | |
| 34 | Ofanto River, Italy | Plankton nets 2.5 m long with an opening of 55 cm × 55 cm, 333 μm mesh size | Fragments, flakes, PE, 500–1000 μm, 1000–2000 μm | Campanale et al. (2020) | |
| 35 | Yellow River, China | Stainless steel bucket (5 L) | Fibers, 50–100 µm | Han et al. (2020) | |
| 36 | Swiss Rhine River catchment at Brugg and the downstream German-Dutch border at Rees (Germany and Switzerland) | Manta trawl 60 cm × 18 cm, 300 µm mesh size | Fragments, PE, 0.3–1 mm | Mani and Burkhardt-Holm (2020) | |
| 37 | Urban waters of seven cities in the Tuojiang River basin, China | Steel sampler (25 L) passed through 50 μm mesh size sieve | Fibers, PP, 0.5–1 mm | Zhou et al. (2020) | |
| 38 | Manas River, China | Stainless steel drum (2.5 L) | Fibers, PP, 0.3–1.0 mm | G. Wang et al. (2020) | |
| 39 | Minjiang River watershed, Southeast China | Metal pail passed through 300 µm mesh size | Fibers, PET, 1–2 mm | Huang et al. (2020) | |
| 40 | Meuse river and in Netherlands and the Dommel, Germany | A centrifugal water pump passed through of 300, 100, and 20 µm mesh size sieve | PE, 0–1000 µm | Mintenig et al. (2020) | |
| 41 | Cherating river and mangrove, Malaysia | Conical nylon plankton net 0.3 m x 1 m, 100 µm mesh size | Fragments, 0.5–1.0 mm | Pariatamby et al. (2020) | |
| 42 | Yulin River, China | Teflon pump ( 0.05 m3) passed through 64 µm stainless steel sieve mesh size | Lines/fibers, PE, 64–100 µm | Y. Mao et al. (2020) | |
| 43 | Qing River, Beijing, China | Stainless steel bucket (20 L) passed through stainless steel 5000 µm mesh size | Fragments, PE, EPR | C. Wang et al. (2020) | |
| Lake–reservoir | 1 | 3 connected urban lakes and drainage playa wetlands, Lubbock, Texas, USA | Grab sample (3.50 L) passed through sieve (> 300, 250–299, 180–249, 106–179, and 53–105 µm mesh size | 53–105 µm | Lasee et al. (2017) |
| 2 | Lake Hovsgol (mountain remote lake), Mongolia | Manta trawl 16 cm high × 61 cm wide and a 3 m long, 333 µm mesh size | Lines/fibers, 0.355–0.999 mm, 1.00–4.749 mm | Free et al. (2014) | |
| 3 | Laurentian Great Lakes ( Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie), USA | Manta trawl with a rectangular opening 16 cm high × 61 cm wide, and a 3 m long, 333 µm mesh size | Pellets, 0.355–0.999 mm | Eriksen et al. (2013) | |
| 4 | Lake Winnipeg, Canada | Manta 61 cm wide × 18 cm high and a 3 long, 333 µm mesh size | Fibers | Anderson et al. (2017) | |
| 5 | Dongting Lake and Hong Lake, China | 12 V DC Teflon pump (20 L) passed through 50 µm mesh size | Fibers, PP, PE, 50–330 μm, 330–1000 μm | W.F. Wang et al. (2018) | |
| 6 | Western Lake Superior, USA | Manta net 85 cm wide × 14 cm high and a 3 m long, 333 μm mesh size | Fibers, PVC | Hendrickson et al. (2018) | |
| 7 | Lake Michigan, USA | Manta trawl 61 cm wide × 16 cm high and a 3 m long, 333 μm mesh size | Fragments, PE, 0.355– .999 mm | Mason et al. (2016) | |
| 8 | Lake Maggiore, Iseo and Garda, Italy | Manta trawl 60 × 20 cm, 300 µm mesh size | Fragments, PE | Sighicelli et al. (2018) | |
| 9 | Urban Lakes in Changsha, China | 40 L water passed through 45 µm mesh size | Lines, 50–500 µm | Yin et al. (2019) | |
| 10 | Feilaixia Reservoir in the Beijiang River, China | Conical plankton 20 cm diameter, 112 µm mesh size | Films, PP, 0.6–2 mm | Tan et al. (2019) | |
| 11 | Lake Ulansuhai, China | 12-V DC Teflon pump passed through 48 µm mesh size | Fibers, PE, < 0.5 mm | Wang et al. (2019 | |
| 12 | Mecklenburg Lake District in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany | Pump water samples, Manta trawl | Irregular particles, PE, PET, 0–1000 µm | Tamminga et al. 2020 | |
| 13 | Wuliangsuhai Lake, northern China | Stainless steel buckets (20L) passed through 75 µm mesh size sieve | Fibers, PS, < 0.5 mm | R. Mao et al. (2020) | |
| Stream | 1 | Six Mile Creek and Fall Creek streams, USA | Neuston net 1 × 0.5 m,335 µm mesh size | Fibers | Watkins et al. (2019b) |
| Stream–lake | 1 | Streams and wetlands, Victoria, Australia | Grab surface, polypropylene jars (5L) (water), dip nets (biota) | Fibers, PES, rayon, 0–1 mm | Nan et al. (2020) |
| Pond | 1 | North of Jutland, Denmark | A positive displacement pump passed through 10 µm stainless steel mesh size | PP | Liu et al. (2019) |
| River–estuary–lake | 1 | Urban lakes and urban reaches of the Hanjiang River and YangtzeRiver, Wuhan, China | 12 V DC Teflon pump (20 L) passed through 50 μm stainless steel sieve | Fibers, PET, 50–500 μm (or < 0.5 mm) | W.F. Wang et al. (2017) |
| City creeks–rivers–estuary and coastal waters | 1 | City creeks (Shanghai), rivers (Suzhou River and Huangpu River), an estuary (Yangtze Estuary) and coastal waters (East China Sea), Yangtze Delta area, China | Metal pail (5 L) passed through 20 µm mesh size filter, air lift pump | Fibers, PES, 0.1–1.0 mm | Luo et al. (2019) |
| River water–wastewater–total atmospheric fallout | 1 | Greater Paris–Seine River, France | Manta trawl 330 µm mesh size, Plankton net 80 µm mesh size | Fibers, 1001–5000 µm | Dris et al. (2015) |
| River–atmospheric fallout–urban runoff–WWTP effluents-CSOs | 1 | River Marne, France | Manta trawl 80 and 300 µm mesh size | Fibers | Dris et al. (2018) |
| Surface water, storm water runoff, agricultural runoff, and treated wastewater effluent | 1 | Lake Ontario of the Laurentian Great Lakes in Canada | Stainless steel bucket (4 L) passed through 10 µm mesh size filter | Fibers | Grbić et al. (2020) |
| Urban prairie creek | 1 | Wascana Creek, northern outskirts of Regina, Canada | Conical net (water), seine nets, gill nets, conventional tackle, and minnow traps (biota) | Fibers | Campbell et al. (2017) |