IJEP 44(11): 963-976 : Vol. 44 Issue. 11 (November 2024)
Irene Monica Jaikumar and Majesh Tomson*
Christ (Deemed to be University), Department of Life Sciences, Bengaluru – 560 029, Karnataka, India
Abstract
The waterbodies of a city play a major role in its biodiversity and ecological well-being. The main aspect of this study was to select lakes close to urban areas that are affected due to garbage dumping or have wastewater treatment plants inlets in them and check for microplastics (MPs) presence in them. Seetharampalya and Puttenahalli lakes in Bangalore both showed the presence of microplastics in their water and bank sediment soil samples, which were segregated by the wet peroxide oxidation process. In scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, the microplastics segregated from the water of Seetharampalya lake were found to be clumped and in clusters of uneven form and shape. Microplastics extracted from the soil of Seetharampalya lake were found to have sheet, like structures with occasional clumps or clusters. The microplastics sorted out from Puttenahalli lake water were uneven and had roughly rectangular structures. The soil microplastics recovered from Puttenahalli lake were found to be sheaths of globular masses. The energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis majorly showed presence of carbon and oxygen. In Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, characteristic peaks at 719/cm and 1469/cm were observed. Similarly, in x-ray diffraction (XRD), the 2q values around 20º could be seen in all four samples. This is the first reported study of microplastics in these lakes of Bangalore.
Keywords
Microplastics, Freshwater, Pollution, Ecology, Diversity, Analytical techniques
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