Assessment of Sediment Grain Size and Its Correlation with Microplastic Accumulation and Characteristics in the Kahayan River, Indonesia

Abstract

The purpose of our research was to investigate the relationship between sediment grain size and the accumulation and characteristics of microplastics in the Kahayan River, Indonesia. The average abundance of microplastic in sediment was 7.3 ± 4.3 n/kg dry weight. The result showed a significant difference between predominant sediment grain size and microplastic occurrence in sediment. Moreover, sediment types of very coarse sand (1–2 mm), coarse sand (0.5–1 mm), and fine sand (0.1–0.2 mm) showed a significant and strong correlation with microplastic abundance. Predominant sediment grain size and microplastic shape (fragment, fiber) or size of >1000 µm also have a significant and strong correlation.

Keywords:

• Freshwater
• grain size
• microplastic
• sediment
• the Kahayan River

Author contributions

Zakiah: Manuscript writing, Content review & editing, Conceptualization, Investigation, Data collection and analysis, Result interpretation, Project administration. Muhammad Reza Cordova: Manuscript writing, Content review, and editing, Resources, Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Supervision. Etty Riani: Investigation, Visualization, Data analysis, Manuscript writing, Content review and editing, Supervision. Taryono: Investigation, Visualization, Data analysis, Manuscript writing, Content review and editing, Supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP), Ministry of Finance of The Republic of Indonesia.