Towards sustainable management of riverine ecosystems: Variability of microplastic diversity and distribution patterns in ecosystem compartments

作者：Lina Cao, Zhenxing Zhang, Jörg Rinklebe, Michael S. Bank, Hongyong Xiang · 发表于：Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.1016/j.enceco.2025.12.027 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Microplastics and Plastic Pollution、Environmental Chemistry and Analysis、Marine and coastal ecosystems

As emerging environmental chemicals, Microplastic (MP) pollution in global freshwater environment receives an increasing attention due to hazardous effect to human and environmental health. However, there is still minimal understanding on variability of MP diversity and distribution patterns in riverine ecosystem compartments. And field data are also lacking. All above hindered providing more science-based information for mechanisms of transport and interdisciplinary studies dealing with environmental chemistry and toxicology in global freshwater environment. Hence, our study focused on variability of MP diversity and distribution patterns in riverine ecosystem compartments. By undertaking MP community analyses, we found that distribution and variation in MP characteristics and communities among ecosystem compartments differed significantly. Moreover, structural characteristics of MP communities across compartments were distinct but not fully isolated, reflecting a balance between dispersion and niche differentiation (environmental filtering). Specifically, surface water and sediments mainly accumulated a greater abundance of smaller-sized, low-density, and fibrous MPs. Their distribution patterns were similar and mainly affected by population density, flow velocity, and precipitation. The distance-decay relationship of MP communities in surface water was stronger ( p < 0.001) than that in sediment and soil. The longitudinal connectivity of the river, input of pollution sourc...