Microplastic pollution in coastal waters from selected beach in Kuala Langat (Malaysia) coastline

Sulong, Siti Shalihah (2023) Microplastic pollution in coastal waters from selected beach in Kuala Langat (Malaysia) coastline. [Project Paper] (Submitted)

Text 200935 SITI SHALIHAH lpFPSK4 2023 24.pdf Download (7MB)

Abstract

Introduction: The plastic debris often degrades when exposed to various environmental elements like sunlight, water, and wind, it usually disintegrates into small plastic particles known as microplastics (Sherrington et. al., 2017). Objective: The distribution and abundance of microplastics in the Kuala Langat coastline are able to be studied by analyzing the morphology of the microplastics presence in the selected beaches along Kuala Langat coastline and also by comparing the microplastics occurrence in coastal water between the selected beaches. Method: Beach water samples were collected from five selected beaches (Tanjung Rhu beach, Kelanang beach, Morib beach, Batu Laut beach and Cunang beach) by using Schott glass bottles. Four replicate samples for each of the sampling points were collected and extracted by using vacuum-filtered through a 0.45μm pore size of Nitrocellulose filter. Stereo microscopes (Motic SMZ-168) were used for optical analysis and photography. Result: The study found that there was a high abundance of extended particles from Tanjung Rhu beach (2434.34 μm) while a short particle was found in Cunang (1270.02 μm). There were six main types of colors (white, red, black, brown, transparents and blue) that were mainly found in beach water samples of selected beaches. All of the beaches except for Cunang had the highest in transparents colour while in Cunang, white tended to be the highest. Overall, the highest percentage of colour type found was transparents (39.98%) followed by white colour (35.2%), black (13.1%), brown (11.78%), red (7.04%) and the lowest was blue (4.16%). Meanwhile, five types of shape were identified in the beach water samples (fibre, fragment, film, foam and pellet). Overall, the shapes that were mostly identified in all of the selected beaches are fragments (41.46%) followed by fiber (30.56%), pellet (14.4%), film (7.04%) and the lowest is foam (6.56%). The One Way ANOVA was used to assess the association between microplastics size among the selected beaches. One Way ANOVA test was not statistically significant, showing that the particle size of microplastics from the selected beaches were not influenced by the type of activities of the beach area, F(4,23)=1.742, p=0.773. This was because the size of microplastics were influenced by the difference of degradation rate in each of the beaches, the distance between the microplastics sources to its final destination and the size of the plastics before they degrade. Conclusion: This study results provide an important baseline reference on microplastics pollution from beach water samples in Kuala Langat coastline. The morphology of the microplastics also indicate the human activity that causes the source of the microplastics such as littering, fishing activities and tourism. Keywords: Beach water, Microplastics, Pollution, Kuala Langat

Item Type:	Project Paper
Faculty:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Science
Depositing User:	Ms Norafizah Radzuan
Date Deposited:	17 Apr 2024 07:19
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 07:19
URI:	http://psaspb.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/1693

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