水环境中的微塑料及其生态效应

塑料在日常生活中无处不在,随意丢弃的塑料会在各种作用下最终进入江河、湖泊、近海、深海、以及大洋甚至极地地区。在外界条件(如高温、风化、紫外线)影响下,大型塑料结构的完整性易遭到破坏而被逐渐分解成微小的塑料碎片,当其粒径小于5 mm时即可被称为微塑料。塑料中的某些添加剂,如壬基苯酚、多溴联苯醚、邻苯二甲酸盐、双酚A等会在塑料降解为微塑料的过程中释放到水环境中,从而威胁到水生生态系统的安全。微塑料粒径小,易被浮游动物误食或沿着食物链传递,在生物体内累积转移,对机体产生不可逆转的毒害作用。此外,微塑料还能作为某些污染物富集的载体,产生较强的复合毒性。因此水环境正面临着微塑料污染的威胁,如何治理已成为全球性的环境问题。本文对水环境中微塑料的来源与分布、微塑料的迁移和转化以及微塑料对水环境的影响进行了综述,并对水环境中的微塑料污染问题提出了一些解决方案,期望能为微塑料及其在水环境中的生态效应研究提供理论基础和数据支持。

Microplastics in Water Environment and Their Ecological Effects

Plastics are widely used in our daily life, which would enter rivers, lakes, offshore, deep sea, oceans, and even polar regions eventually under a variety of environmental effects if they are thrown away. Under the effects of external conditions, such as high temperature, weathering and ultraviolet rays, the structural integrity of large plastics would be destroyed easily and decomposed into tiny bits of plastic, which are described as microplastics when their particle sizes are less than 5 mm. Some additives in the plastics, such as nonylphenol (NP), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA), would release into the water environment during the degradation process of plastics, which threaten the safety of aquatic ecosystems. Microplastics are easily eaten by zooplankton or transferred through the aquatic food chain, which would result in their accumulation in living organisms, and cause an irreversible toxic effect on the organisms. Additionally, microplastics could serve as a carrier of some chemical contaminants due to their structural characteristics, resulting in stronger toxicity when they are combined with the contaminants. Thus, the safety of water environment is facing the threat of microplastics pollution, which has become a global environmental issue. This paper reviewed the sources, distribution, migration and transformation of microplastics, and their influences on water environment. And some solutions were proposed to solve the potential pollution of microplastics in water environment. It is hoped that the results will provide theoretical basis and data support to the research of microplastics and their ecological effects on water environment.