Spatial distribution and risk assessment of microplastics in water and sediments of the Colleroon Estuary, India

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is becoming a pressing environmental issue, especially in estuarine ecosystems. The current study examines the concentrations and properties of MPs in the water and sediments of the Colleroon estuary, located on the southeast coast of India. The average MPs concentration of 1.64 ± 0.28 items/100 L was found in the water, while the sediment samples showed a much higher count of 276.11 ± 35.32 items/kg. Fibers were the dominant particle shape found in both matrices, and the most common colour was black. Fibers ranged in size from 1 to 5 mm in the water matrix, whereas fibres less than 20 to 100 μm prevailed in the sediment matrix. The Shapiro-Wilk tests confirmed that the MPs counts in both water and sediment did not significantly deviate from normality (p > 0.05 for all stations). A one-way ANOVA revealed significant differences in MPs counts across the water samples (p < 0.001) and sediment samples (F (5,12) = 3.184, p = 0.0465), with post-hoc Tukey's HSD tests showing specific differences in sediment. Both water and sediment showed lower pollution loads according to MPLI. However, the risk of hazard indices such as H and MPRI is comparatively higher in water than in sediments. This implies that, although the presence of MPs in water is less abundant, they play an important role as compared to sediments.

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