Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jan;31(1):1637-1643.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-30889-8. Epub 2023 Nov 30.

Microplastic in fishes: the first report from a Himalayan River - Alaknanda

Vaishali Bhatt  1 , Neha Badola  1 , Jaspal Singh Chauhan  2
Affiliations

Microplastic in fishes: the first report from a Himalayan River - Alaknanda

Vaishali Bhatt et al. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

The present study aimed to understand microplastic (MP) ingestion by five fish species with different feeding habits namely, Schizothorax richardsonii and Crossocheilus latius (herbivore),Cyprinus carpio (omnivore), Tor chelenoid (herbi-omnivore), and Botia horii (carnivore). The fishes were sampled from River Alaknanda (one of the headwaters of River Ganga) patch at Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttarakhand. The fish gut samples were digested with 30% hydrogen peroxide and vacuum filtered through glass microfiber filter. Each filter paper was observed microscopically to count MPs, and then, selected MPs were chemically characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The results revealed that all the species were contaminated with MPs and the rate of MP ingestion varied with feeding habits. The herbi-omnivore fish, Tor chelenoid, was observed to have the highest MP ingestion. Among the analyzed particles, fibers (66%) were the dominant type of MPs. The MPs were chemically characterized as High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene (PP), and Polyester. This study contributes as a reference for the forthcoming researches, as it is the pioneer work on the ingestion of MP by fishes of a Himalayan River.

Keywords: Alaknanda; Fish; Freshwater ecosystem; Himalaya; Microplastic; River.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ahrendt C, Perez-Venegas DJ, Urbina M, Gonzalez C, Echeveste P, Aldana M et al (2020) Microplastic ingestion cause intestinal lesions in the intertidal fish Girellalaevifrons. Mar Pollut Bull 151:110795 - DOI
    1. Andrade MC, WinemillerKO BPS, Fortunati A, Chelazzi D, Cincinelli A, Giarrizzo T (2019) First account of plastic pollution impacting freshwater fishes in the Amazon: ingestion of plastic debris by piranhas and other serrasalmids with diverse feeding habits. Environ Pollut 244:766–773 - DOI
    1. Andrady AL (2011) Microplastics in the marine environment. Mar Pollut Bull 62(8):1596–1605 - DOI
    1. Atamanalp M, Köktürk M, Parlak V, Ucar A, Arslan G, Alak G (2022) A new record for the presence of microplastics in dominant fish species of the Karasu River Erzurum Turkey. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29:7866–7876
    1. Badola N, Sobhan F, Chauhan JS (2023) Microplastics in the River Ganga and its fishes: study of a Himalayan River. Sci Total Environ 901:165924 - DOI

LinkOut - more resources