Occurrence, sources, and relationships of soil microplastics with adsorbed heavy metals in the Ebinur Lake Basin, Northwest China

There is a lack of research on soil microplastics in arid oases considering the rapid economic development northwestern China. Here, we studied occurrence and sources soil, as well relationships between adsorbed heavy metals Ebinur Lake Basin, typical oasis Results showed that (1) average microplastic content all samples was 36.15 (±3.27) mg/kg. The contents at different sampling sites ranged from 3.89 (±1.64) to 89.25 (±2.98) Overall, proportions various shapes decreased following order: film (54.25%)>fiber (18.56%)>particle (15.07%)>fragment (8.66%)>foam (3.46%); (2) among particles, white particles accounted for largest proportion (52.93%), followed by green (24.15%), black (12.17%), transparent (7.16%), yellow (3.59%). particle size ranges across 1000–2000 µm (40.88%)>500–1000 (26.75%)>2000–5000 (12.30%)>100–500 (12.92%)>0–100 (7.15%). FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) analyses polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polycarbonate (PC), (PE), polystyrene (PS) occurred soil; (3) random forest predictions industrial agricultural production activities discharge domestic plastic waste were related pollution, which most important factor pollution study area; (4) seven extracted significant positive correlations with pH, EC, total salt, N, P, K (P<0.01), indicating these factors could significantly affect carried microplastics. This demonstrated are lower than other areas world, they mainly come Basin.