Gbogbo F, Takyi JB, Billah MK, Ewool J. Analysis of microplastics in wetland samples from coastal Ghana using the Rose Bengal stain.
Environ Monit Assess 2020;
192:208. [PMID:
32128624 DOI:
10.1007/s10661-020-8175-8]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The use of optical microscope remains the most commonly used technique for microplastic identification and quantification despite major limitations with misidentifications and biases. We evaluated the use of the 1% Rose Bengal stain in improving the identification of microplastics after a standard microplastic isolation process. The stain discriminated organic materials from potential microplastics with significant differences between numbers observed before (6.65 ± 5.73) and after staining (2.91 ± 3.43). Numbers of potential microplastics observed under the conventional method (without staining) in sediment, feacal matter of shorebirds and the lagoon water were respectively 3.55 g-1, 0.8 g-1 and 0.13 ml-1 but reduced to 1.85 g-1 of sediment, 0.35 g-1 of feacal material and 0.09 ml-1 of water after staining. Colour composition of potential microplastics under the conventional method was brown (31.0%), black (26.5%), white (20.2%), translucent (16.7%) and red (5.6%). After staining, brown (49,2%), black (30.5%) white (2.3%) and translucent (18.0%) were retained but distinction could not be made between stained organic items and red-coloured microplastics. It was clear that the stain has the potential in improving microplastic identification but requires further investigations.
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