Table 3.
Microplastic studies in water and sediment 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 GorgesReservoir, China | 12 V DC Teflon pump (25 L), passed through 48-μm stainless steel sieve (water) and Van Veen grab (0.25 m2 area) (sediment) | Fibers, PS, < 0.5 mm | Di and Wang (2018) |
| 2 | Five urban estuaries of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa | Conical zooplankton net (300 µm mesh size) (water) and sediment corer (depth of 10 cm) (sediment) | Fragments | Naidoo et al. (2015) | |
| 3 | Pearl River along Guangzhou City, China | Water sampler (5 L) ( water), Van Veen grab (depth of 5 cm) (sediment) | Fibers, PP, 0.02–0.5 mm, 0.5–1 mm | Lin et al. (2018) | |
| 4 | Antuã River, Portugal | Water pump (55 µm mesh size (water), Van Veen grab (depth of 12 cm) (sediment) | Foams, PE, PP | Rodrigues et al. (2018) | |
| 5 | Ottawa River, Canada | Bottle sampling and Manta trawls (100 µm mesh size) (water), Ekman bottom grab sampler (sediment) | Fibers | Vermaire et al. (2017) | |
| 6 | Charleston Harbor and Winyah Bay, two developed estuaries in US | Sea surface microlayer collection apparatus (4L) (water) and stainless steel trowel (0.25 m × 0.25 m transect) (sediment) | Fragments, 150–499 µm | Gray et al. (2018) | |
| 7 | Slum and industrial area of Ciwalengke River, Majalaya, Indonesia | Grab samples with glass container (1L) (water), Ekman grab sampler and shovel (sediment) | – | Alam et al. (2019) | |
| 8 | Pearl River catchment, China | Plankton net (160 μm mesh size (water), grasp bucket and gravity corer (depth of 54 cm) (sediment) | Sheets, PP, LDPE, < 0.25 mm | Fan et al. (2019) | |
| 9 | Wei River, China | Bulk sampling using clean pump (5L) passed through 75 µm mesh size (water), grab (sediment) | Fibers, < 0.5 mm | Ding et al. (2019) | |
| 10 | Tibet Plateau Rivers, China (Buqu River (the source of the Yangtze | Large flow sampler (water) and a stainless steel shovel (depth of 2 cm) (sediment) | Fibers, PET (sediment samples), PE (water samples), < 0.5 mm | Jiang et al. (2019) | |
| 11 | Middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China | A fishery administration vessel (AVANI trawl net 333 μm mesh size), A plankton net (64 µm mesh size) (water) and grab sampler (sediment) | Sheets, PP, 0.3–0.5 mm, 0.5–1 mm | Xiong et al. (2019) | |
| 12 | Nakdong River, South Korea | Stainless steel beaker, submersible pump (water), Van Veen grab (depth of 2 cm) (sediment) | Fragments, PP | Eo et al. (2019) | |
| 13 | Mohawk River, USA | Manta trawl (333 μm mesh size (water) and Ekman grab sampler was (sediment) | Fibers, fragments | Smith et al. (2017) | |
| 14 | Ebro River Delta, Northeastern Iberian Peninsula, Spain | Neuston net (5 µm mesh size) (water), stainless steel spoon (0.2 m × 0.2 m quadrant, depth of 2.5 cm) and van Veen grab sampler (sediments) | Fibers, PE, 200–500 µm | Simon-Sánchez et al. (2019) | |
| 15 | Yongjiang River, Nanning City, South China | 12 V DC Teflon pump (10 L) passed through 50-µm-mesh size sieve (water) and Van Veen grab (sediment) | Fibers, PE, 330–1000 μm and 1–3 mm | Zhang et al. (2020) | |
| 16 | Maozhou River, China | Stainless steel bucket (5L), depth of 50 cm (water) box corer, depth of 20 cm (sediment) | Fragments, 10 μm-0.1 mm | Wu et al. (2020) | |
| 17 | Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, Thailand | Manta trawl 2 m long, width of 50 cm, and a height of 20 cm, 300 µm mesh size (water), Van Veen grab sampler (sediment) | Fragments, PP, 0.5–1.0 (water samples) 0.053–0.5 mm (sediment samples) | Ta et al. (2020) | |
| 18 | Ravi River in urban center ( predominant drains and canals of Lahore district), Lahore, Pakistan | Stainless steel spatula, 0.3 m × 0.3 m quadrate, depth of 1 cm (sediment) | Fragments, PE, 150–300 μm (sediment samples), and large size MPs 300 μm–5 mm (water samples) | Irfan et al. (2020) | |
| 19 | Magdalena River, Colombia | Neuston net 20 µm mesh size (water), metal shovel, depth of 5 cm (sediment) | Fibers, PP | Martínez Silva and Nanny (2020) | |
| Lake–reservoir | 1 | Lake Bolsena and Lake Chiusi, Italy | Manta trawl 300 µm mesh size 60 cm × 18.5 cm (water), 0.25 m2 area, depth of 3 cm (sediment) | Fibers, < 0.3 mm, 0.3–0.5 mm | Fischer et al. (2016) |
| 2 | Dongting Lake, China | Flow sampler (30L), passed through 45 µm mesh size (water) and Stainless shovel 0.3 m × 0..2 m quadrat, depth of 0–2 cm (sediment) | Fibers, PET (sediment sediment), PE (water sediment), < 0.5 mm | Jiang et al. (2018) | |
| 3 | Six dams near Ithaca, USA | Grab sample 1 L plastic bottles (water), plastic scoop (sediment samples) | Fibers | Watkins et al. (2019a) | |
| 4 | Danjiangkou Reservoir, China | 12 V DC Teflon pump (20L), depth of 0–20 cm (water), grab (sediment) | Fibers, PP, group 1 (48 μm − 0.5 mm), group 2 (0.5–1 mm), group 3 (1–2 mm), | Di et al. (2019) | |
| 5 | Lakes along the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River Basin, China | Neuston plankton net 74 µm mesh size (water), Van Veen grab (sediment) | Fibers, PET, 20–50 µm | Li et al. (2019) | |
| Stram | 1 | 18 streams in and around the city of Auckland, New Zealand | Phytoplankton net 63 µm mesh size (water) and scooped with container, depth of 5 cm (sediment) | Fragments, fibers (water samples), fragments (sediment samples), poly(hexadecyl) methacrylate (PHM), ethylene/ethyl acrylate copolymer (EEAC), 63–500 µm | Dikareva and Simon (2019) |
| Fish ponds | 1 | Central and Eastern European region | Jet pumps, passed through 2 mm mesh size strainer, depth of 10–20 cm (water), Veen grab sampler and a hand spade (sediment samples) | PP | Bordós et al. (2019 |
| River–estuary–lake–WWTPs | 1 | River Barrow, River, Nore, Lough, Lurgan (Cushina, Co. Offaly) and River Liffey (Newbridge, Co. Kildare), Ireland | - | PS | Cedro and Cleary 2015 |