Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656

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Chemosphere
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chemosphere

Occurrence and distribution of microplastics in commercial fishes

from estuarine areas of Guangdong, South China
Chaonan Zhang a, Shaodan Wang a, Zhengkun Pan a, Di Sun a, Shaolin Xie a, b,
Aiguo Zhou a, b, Jun Wang a, b, c, *, Jixing Zou a, b, **
a
Joint Laboratory of Guangdong Province and Hong Kong Region on Marine Bioresource Conservation and Exploitation, College of Marine Sciences, South
China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
b
Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, 510642, China
c
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Ecology of Tropical Islands, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, 571158, China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

First report on microplastics pollu-

tion in commercial fishes from South
China.

White fibers were the dominant type
in commercial fishes from South
China.

A species-specific distribution of the
microplastics was observed.

Mugil cephalus and Konosirus
punctatus are two suitable species for
monitoring microplastic ingestion.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The widespread presence of microplastics in global aquatic ecosystems has aroused growing concerns
Received 28 May 2020 regarding their potential impact on aquatic biota. Data show an extensive plastic pollution in coastal
Received in revised form areas of Guangdong, China, however, to date there has been no quantitative study on the ingestion of
2 July 2020
microplastics by commercial fishes from the estuarine areas. In this study, we analyzed the abundance,
Accepted 7 July 2020
Available online 11 July 2020
characteristics, species-specific and spatial distribution of microplastics in six species of commercial fish
from estuarine areas of Guangdong. Sixty-four fish samples from nineteen sampling sites were inves-
Handling Editor: Tamara S. Galloway tigated. The average abundance of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tracts of the commercial fishes
was 5.4 items/individual, indicating potential food safety. The majority of microplastics were fibers,
Keywords: white in color and less than 1 mm in size. Species-specific and spatial distribution of the microplastics
Microplastics were observed in terms of abundance, shape, color and size. Sillago japonica had the highest (6.9 items/
Commercial fishes individual), while Alepes djedaba had the lowest (3 items/individual) abundance of microplastics in the
Estuary gastrointestinal tract. We recommend demersal Mugil cephalus and pelagic Konosirus punctatus to be
Guangdong
considered as two species suitable for monitoring microplastics ingestion in the seafloor and water
South China
column communities.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

* Corresponding author. College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural 1. Introduction

University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
** Corresponding author. College of Marine Sciences, South China Agricultural
Plastics have become universal materials due to their durability,
University, Guangzhou, 510642, China.
E-mail addresses: wangjun2016@scau.edu.cn (J. Wang), zoujixing@scau.edu.cn light weight and corrosion-resistant. In 2018, global plastics pro-
(J. Zou). duction was close to 360 million tons (Mt), and China contributed

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127656
0045-6535/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656
to 30% of global production. The benefits of plastics are inversely
correlated with negative environmental impacts, for example,
nearly 8 Mt of plastics enter the oceans every year, and marine litter
has been found at all ocean depths (Cozar et al., 2014; Cannon et al.,
2016; Lacerda et al., 2019). Without intervention, the abundance of
plastics in the oceans is expected to increase to 100e250 Mt by
2025 (Global Environment Outlook 6, UN Environment, 2019). A
large proportion of the plastics remain in the ocean for a long time,
and increasing amounts will continue to enter the oceans because
of human activity. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive
(MSFD) highlighted concerns regarding the environmental impact
of marine litter; one of the key attributes of which was the iden-
tification of ecological hazards caused by microplastics and their
related chemicals (Zarfl et al., 2011). Although plastic is a major
component of ocean waste, the abundance of plastics has not been
extensively studied because of difficulty in assessing their distri-
bution (Doyle et al., 2011). Microplastics were first described as
microscopic particles in the region of 20 mm diameter (Thompson
et al., 2004), but are now considered to be smaller than 5 mm in
size according to the standards set by US National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Microplastics are increasingly being found not only in the
oceans (Cozar et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2020), but also in the
digestive systems of marine organisms, including fish (Arias et al.,
2019; Kühn et al., 2020) and shellfish (Li et al., 2018; Webb et al.,
2019). The concentrations of microplastics in the waters north-
east of Greenland ranged from 1 to 3 items/m3 (Morgana et al.,
2018), while those in the Antarctic Peninsula, ranged from 755 to
3524 items/km2 (Lacerda et al., 2019). In China, the most common
microplastics characteristics are small size (<1 mm), fiber shaped,
and transparent in color, Polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE)
are the most common (Fu and Wang, 2019). The widespread
accumulation and distribution of microplastics has raised concerns
regarding their interaction and potential impact on marine life. It is
important to quantify and characterize different types of micro-
plastics in a wider range of natural and management systems.
Cannon et al. proposed a standardized sampling protocol to provide
a basis for comparisons among existing and future studies on
plastic intake by fish (Cannon et al., 2016). Current estimates of the
microplastic burden on fish may generally overlook most of the
potential contamination by the smaller, critical class of particles
that can be transferred to tissues, with important implications on
the health of the fish and their consumers (Roch et al., 2019). Many
studies have shown that the shape, size and surface physico-
chemical characteristics of microplastics are important de-
terminants of their biological effects (Jabeen et al., 2017; Fu and
Wang, 2019; Xu et al., 2020).
Fish can act as bioindicator, monitoring the level of microplastic
waste in an area and predicting its prospects of entering the food
chain. Three species of Myctophidae were considered as the most
suitable fishes to monitor marine plastics ingestion throughout the
Mediterranean basin (Bray et al., 2019). Using standardized indi-
cator species could ensure coherence in the reporting of micro-
plastic ingestion trends. Commercial fishes are important
mediators in estimating the potential transfer of microplastics from
seafood to humans (Fossi et al., 2018). Several species traits,
including gender, age, size and habitat type, affect their efficacy as
biological indicators of microplastic ingestion trends. However, fish
may provide data on biome monitoring and in ecological niches not
currently monitored. To date, few studies have focused on indicator
fish species of microplastics ingestion.
Guangdong province, bordering the south China sea, is the
southernmost mainland in China with a coastline of 4114.3 km, the
longest in China. The resident population of Guangdong was 113.46
million in 2018 (Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics), and the
gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.08 billion RNB in 2019 (China
National Bureau of Statistics). The large population and economic
activity have resulted in many ecological pollution problems. The
2018 report on the state of Guangdong provincial ecology and
environment showed that floating pollution on the sea surface was
mainly foam and plastic bottles, with polystyrene foam pollution
accounting for 63.2% and plastics accounting for 30.6% (Guangdong
Provincial Department of ecology and environment). Estuarine and
coastal areas are hotspots for plastic accumulation. A large amount
of plastic pollution and sewage generated by human activities
gathers in the coastal zone, or may be transported to the estuaries
and offshore through rivers. A lot of the plastic waste in the oceans
migrates and gathers in the coastal zone due to the action of ocean
currents and tides. Studies have reported the observation of
microplastics pollution in fish from coastal areas around the world
(Arias et al., 2019; Collicutt et al., 2019; Sun et al., 2019). Some in-
vestigations also have been done in Guangdong (Fok et al., 2017;
Zheng et al., 2019). Especially, Zhu et al. (2019) investigated
microplastics ingestion in deep-sea fish from the South China Sea
and Huang et al. (2020) investigated microplastic accumulation in
fish from the Zhanjiang mangrove wetland. However, there is no
quantitative study on the ingestion of microplastics in wild com-
mercial fishes from the estuarine area in Guangdong, which is
critical to consumer’s health and the sustainable development of
fisheries.
In view of the serious contamination and close connection of
estuarine ecosystems with human health, there is an urgent need
to determine the concentration and distribution patterns of
microplastics in commercial fishes, to provide information for risk
assessment. In this study, we investigated microplastics pollution
in wild commercial fishes from the estuarine area in Guangdong.
Sixty-four fish samples from nineteen sampling sites were inves-
tigated, representing wild marine fish species commonly found on
the market. The shape, color and size of the microplastics found in
different wild marine fish species were recorded. We also aimed to
identify suitable bioindicator species to monitor the ingestion of
microplastics in commercial fishes along the estuarine area.
Knowledge of microplastics contamination of fish can provide in-
formation for forecasting microplastics pollution in the estuarine
ecosystem and the health risks to human through seafood
consumption.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Sampling
In January 2020, fish samples were collected from nineteen sites
in estuarine areas of five cities in Guangdong province, as shown in
Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table S1. Two or three fish of each target
species, all of which had been captured by net, were purchased
from local fishermen at each sampling site. Then the fresh fishes
were placed in ice bags and transferred to the laboratory. The fish
specimens from each sampling site were identified, total length and
weight measured (Supplementary Table S2), and then stored
at 20  C until further analysis. Nine different species were
sampled (Fig. 2), including Siganus fuscescens, Alepes djedaba,
Leiognathus brevirostris, Mugil cephalus, Sillago japonica, Konosirus
punctatus, Therapon jarbua, Paerargyrops edita and Gerres limbatus.
2.2. Microplastic extraction
We selected sixty-four fishes from six species (Siganus fusces-
cens, Alepes djedaba, Leiognathus brevirostris, Mugil cephalus, Sillago
japonica and Konosirus punctatus) for our research objectives, as
these six species were common at every sampling site. After
 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656 3

Fig. 1. Sampling locations in estuarine areas of Guangdong.

Fig. 2. Fish samples from sampling sites: A. Alepes djedaba; B. Leiognathus brevirostris; C. Konosirus punctatus; D. Siganus fuscescens; E. Sillago japonica; F. Konosirus punctatus; G.
Paerargyrops edita; H. Therapon jarbua; I. Gerres limbatus.
4 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656
thawing at room temperature, the fish were dissected, and the
gastrointestinal tracts (GITs, from the tip of the oesophagus to the
vent) were collected and weighed. The GITs were placed in 500 mL
glass bottles with 200 mL KOH (10%, V/V), respectively and incu-
bated in a thermostatic water bath at 60  C for 2e5 days (Nie et al.,
2019). For fish samples with a high clay content, we added 400 mL
saturated sodium chloride solution (gravimetric method) after
initial filtration of the supernatant, and suspended at room tem-
perature overnight (Jabeen et al., 2017). Following digestion or
suspension, the solutions were filtered through 0.45-mm filter pa-
pers (Jinteng, Tianjin, China), which were then air-dried at room
temperature and placed in glass dishes.
2.3. Microscopy
The microplastics on the filter papers were observed with a
stereomicroscope (OLYMPUS SZX7, China) and measured using an
eyepiece micrometer. The microplastics were divided into six
classes, based on the size of the longest segment: <0.5 mm,
0.5e1 mm, 1e2 mm, 2e3 mm, 3e4 mm and 4e5 mm. They were
also divided into six categories according to color: white, blue,
green, red, yellow, and black. With reference to previous studies
(Zheng et al., 2019), we divided the microplastics into four types:
fibers, fragments, films and spheres. Fibers are characterized by a
unidirectional extension, they are soft, tough and cannot be
deformed. Fragments have an irregular shape and a certain thick-
ness and hardness, extending in two or three directions. Films are
thin microplastics that extend in two directions, and can be easily
squeezed with tweezers. Spheres are smooth and spherical
microplastics. These types are all within 5 mm long and can be
observed under a stereoscopic microscope. Based on these char-
acteristics, we recorded the size, color and type of all microplastics
observed from the fish samples.
2.4. Microplastics identification
We used scanning electron microscope (SEM) (Hitachi S-4800,
Japan) to get high-definition image of microplastic. Before SEM
observation, target filter papers with microplastics were placed on
double-sided tape and coated with evaporated gold. Fourier
Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer (BRUKER, VERTEX 70,
Germany) was used to identify the microplastic. However, the
samples were too tiny to be selected or tested.
2.5. Quality assurance and quality control
Medical gloves, glassware and metal tools were used
throughout the experiment to treat the samples, and the dissecting
tools were rinsed with distilled water three times before use. The
researchers wore cotton laboratory coats during experimentation.
All liquid reagents (10% KOH and saturated sodium chloride solu-
tion) were supplied with distilled water.
Table 1
The abundance of microplastics in different wild fish samples.
Species Alepes djedaba Konosirus punctatus
Number 6 8
Total number of microplastics 18 32
Average abundance (items/individual) 3 4
Average GITs weight(g) 0.82 3.05
Average total length (cm) 14.53 ± 3.52 18.15 ± 2.42
Average weight(g) 42.26 ± 33.38 64.51 ± 27.12
2.6. Statistical analysis
Microsoft Office Excel, SPSS 20 and GraphPad Prism were
applied for statistical analysis and graphing. A one-way ANOVA test
was used to determine interspecies differences and spatial differ-
ences (significance level of 0.05).
3. Results
3.1. Characteristics of microplastics in the fish samples
A total of sixty-four commercial fishes from six species, repre-
senting six families from the class Actinopterygii were studied,
sixty-two of which were contaminated with microplastics. The
abundance of microplastics ranged from 1.0 to 17.0 (average ¼ 5.4)
items/individual (Table 1). The typical shapes of the microplastics
observed in the fish samples are shown in Fig. 3. They were further
analyzed by SEM, and SEM images are shown in Fig. 4. SEM images
of film could not be obtained due to its small number and poor
adhesion to the filter membrane. The different shapes of micro-
plastics appear to have absorbed other impurities on their surfaces.
But we couldn’t know exactly what these impurities are or what
harm they might do to fish.
Microplastics of various colors were observed; white was pre-
dominant (51%), with black, yellow and blue constituting of 18%,
17% and 8%, respectively. Smaller proportions of green (3%) and red
(3%) microplastics were also observed (Fig. 5a). The microplastics
ranged in size from 0.05 mm to 4 mm. The majority (90%) were
<1 mm, with only a small amount being 1e4 mm (Fig. 5b). In terms
of shape, the majority of the microplastics were fibers (63%), fol-
lowed by fragments (27%), films (7%) and spheres (3%) (Fig. 5c).
3.2. Species-specific distribution of microplastics
For each fish species, we recorded the average total length,
weight and GIT weight, with no clear correlation with each species’
abundance of microplastics (Table 1). The average abundance of
microplastics in Sillago japonica was 6.9 items/individual, with a
maximum of 17 items/individual, which was significantly higher
than that of other species (Table 1). Relatively abundant amounts of
microplastics were found in the GITs of Siganus fuscescens (6.72
items/individual), Mugil cephalus (5.23 items/individual), and
Leiognathus brevirostris (4.44 items/individual), while lower
amounts found in Konosirus punctatus (4 items/individual) and
Alepes djedaba (3 items/individual).
The common microplastics colors observed in the sixty-four fish
samples were white, yellow, black, and blue. Green and red were
less common. The proportion of white microplastics was greatest,
with the highest percentage (75.4%) observed in Sillago japonica,
and the lowest (33.9%) in Siganus fuscescens. Black microplastics
accounted for 33.3% in Alepes djedaba, yellow accounted for 24.8% of
microplastics in Siganus fuscescens, and 10.3% of the microplastics
observed in Mugil cephalus were blue. We found no red micro-
plastics in Sillago japonica and no green microplastics in Alepes
Leiognathus brevirostris Sillago japonica Mugil cephalus Siganus fuscescens
9 10 13 18
40 69 68 121
4.4 6.9 5.2 6.7
0.38 0.25 2.82 3.16
9.65 ± 1.44 13.13 ± 1.24 16.78 ± 2.84 14.66 ± 2.71
13.58 ± 1.33 16.04 ± 6.26 49.44 ± 31.88 56.12 ± 35.53
 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656 5

Fig. 3. Shapes of microplastics in fish samples from estuarine areas of Guangdong: (C, E, H) fibers; (A,I,L) films; (B,G,K) fragments; (D,F,J) spheres. Red arrows indicate microplastics.
(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

djedaba or Konosirus punctatus (Fig. 6A).
The microplastics observed in our fish samples was mostly
<1 mm in size (Fig. 6B). Microplastics <0.5 mm and 0.5e1 mm
accounted for 44.4% in Alepes djedaba. The proportion of micro-
plastics <0.5 mm was greater than those of 0.5e1 mm in the other
five species, with the highest in Konosirus punctatus (81.25%).
The microplastics were mainly fibers and fragments. Fibers
made up the highest proportion, and accounted for 85% in Leiog-
nathus brevirostris. The proportion of films was low, but were
observed in every species. Spheres were relatively rare, with pro-
portions of 11.6% and 9.4% found in Mugil cephalus and Konosirus
punctatus, respectively, however, almost none were found in Siga-
nus fuscescens, Sillago japonica and Alepes djedaba (Fig. 6C).
based on their regional locations. The fish from Samples E13-19 had
a slightly higher abundance of microplastics than those from the
other two tributaries, but there was no significant difference
(P > 0.05). The abundance of white microplastics in wild fish
samples from E13-19 was lower than that from Samples E1-8 and
E9-12 (Fig. 6D). There was no significant difference in the size of
microplastics observed in the fish from each region (Fig. 6E). The
fragment abundance of E9-12 wild fish samples was slightly lower
than that of Samples E1-8 and E13-19 (Fig. 6F).
4. Discussion
4.1. Characteristics of microplastics in the fish samples

3.3. Spatial distribution of microplastics in fish samples
We analyzed samples from nineteen points in estuarine areas of
Guangdong province. When analyzing the spatial distribution of
microplastics, Samples E1-8, E9-12 and E13-19 were combined,
The average abundance of microplastics in the polluted fish GITs
in this study was 5.4 items/individual, which was higher to levels
reported in deep-sea fish from the South China Sea (1.96 ± 1.12
items/individual in the stomachs and 1.77 ± 0.73 items/individual
in the intestines) (Zhu et al., 2019), also higher than those found in
6 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656

Fig. 4. SEM images of microplastics in fish samples from estuarine areas of Guangdong: (A,B) sphere; (C,D) fragment; (E,F) fiber. The image on the right is a partial enlargement of
the image on the left.

Fig. 5. Proportion of color (a), size (b) and shape (c) of microplastics in the GITs of the commercial fishes from estuarine areas of Guangdong. (For interpretation of the references to
color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656 7

Fig. 6. Proportion of microplastic color (A/D), size (B/E) and shape (C/F) in species-specific distribution (A-C) and spatial distribution (D-F) in fish samples from estuarine areas of
Guangdong. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

fish samples around Nanxun Reef in South China Sea (3.1 items/
individual) (Nie et al., 2019) but lower than those of wild freshwater
fish from the Pearl River catchment (7.0 ± 23.8 items/individual)
(Zheng et al., 2019). These results suggest that freshwater fish may
suffer more pollution than fish in coastal area and sea. A similar
situation was observed in Central Texas, USA (Peters and Bratton,
2016).
The high accumulation of microplastics in wild fishes could lead
to a reduction in fisheries resources and thereby affect the structure
and stability of the food chain (Sun et al., 2019; Meng et al., 2020;
Xu et al., 2020). Moreover, these commercial fishes are eaten
directly by humans, which may compromise human food security,
safety and health (Barboza et al., 2019; Xu et al., 2020).
In terms of the color of microplastics, transparent and white are
often considered as two different colors. In our study, we could not
differentiate between transparent and white, therefore both were
included in the “white” category. Similarly, grey and black were
denoted as “black”, and orange and yellow as “yellow”. This could
account for these three colors having the highest percentages in our
results. The dominant microplastic color observed in fish GITs in
artificial reefs around the Ma’an Archipelago was blue (Zhang et al.,
2020). In the GITs of the wild freshwater fish from the Pearl River
catchment, transparent and white microplastics made up 70.5%,
and grey and black made up 8.5% (Zheng et al., 2019), which was
similar to our results. Lin Zhu et al. only categorized microplastic
color into white, transparent, colored and black; the colored
microplastics were present at a very low percentage (Zhu et al.,
2019). The color of microplastics is determined by the primary
source, but is also influenced by UV radiation, weathering and
microbial degradation during the transfer process. White, trans-
parent and blue are similar to the color of plankton, which is a
primary food source of fish.
Size is another common measurement parameter for micro-
plastics, but there is currently no uniform standard. It was not
surprising that the proportion of microplastics <1 mm was high,
which was similar to previous reports (Zhu et al., 2019). However, it
is difficult to observe or exam microplastics smaller than 0.01 mm.
Samuel Roch et al. suggested that >95% of microplastic particles are
likely to be smaller than 40 mm, which are not observed by re-
searchers but are critical to the health of fish and consumer expo-
sure (Roch et al., 2019). We expect to see automated detection tools
in the future that will be able to detect microplastic particles at the
micron and even nanometer levels.
In terms of microplastics type, Sun et al. identified three cate-
gories: fibers, pellets, and fragments (Sun et al., 2019), while Hu
et al. identified fibers, fragments and granules (Hu et al., 2018).
Arias et al. classified particles into four categories: fibers, lamina,
fragments and pellets (Arias et al., 2019). Wenke Yuan et al. iden-
tified fibers, films, pellets and fragments (Yuan et al., 2019). De-la-
Torre et al. identified fragment, foams, sheets, pellets, films and
8 C. Zhang et al. / Chemosphere 260 (2020) 127656
fibers/lines (De-la-Torre et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2018). Recycled
microplastics have also been divided into two categories based on
their shape, namely fragments and fibers (Park et al., 2020). In
general, fibers are the most common type found in all studies. The
difference between films and fragments is equivocal. In this study,
we distinguished them mainly according to thickness. Fragments
are microplastics with an irregular shape, certain thickness and
hardness, extending in two or three directions. Films refer to the
thin microplastics that extend in two directions, and can be easily
squeezed with tweezers. Smooth and spherica microplastics are
called pellets, spheres or granules. In this study, we used the term
“sphere”, and these were observed at a very small percentage (3%).
As there is a lot of discrepancy in morphology types used, and no
standardization, we recommend clear descriptions of microplastic
morphologies to facilitate classification and comparisons.
4.2. Suitable fish as indicators of microplastic pollution
When choosing fish suitable as indicators of microplastic
pollution, it is important to consider several aspects, including the
fish’s occurrence, vagility, commercial value, distribution and
habitat. In this study, we obtained fish samples from various mar-
kets, with certain economic value and much in common, therefore
we used these six fish species as candidate indicators. In a second
screening, we eliminated three species, namely Alepes djedaba,
Leiognathus brevirostris and Sillago japonica, because their average
GIT weight was <1 g, which resulted in errors during anatomy re-
cordings, and also reflected the short intestinal length. Gut length
provides a rough indication of digestive transport time (German
and Horn, 2006) and is used to calculate laboratory processing
time (Bray et al., 2019). In a third screening, we considered feeding
habits and habitats. Mugil cephalus is a pelagic omnivorous species
and has low mobility (Ouali et al., 2018; Stancheva et al., 2013).
Konosirus punctatus is small upper-middle fish, that feeds mainly on
plankton and organic detritus (Guo et al., 1999). Siganus fuscescens
lives in shallow warm water, 50 m offshore, and feeds mainly on
algae (Zhang et al., 2016). Therefore, Konosirus punctatus is upper-
middle fish, Mugil cephalus and Siganus fuscescens are bottom-
dwelling species; and they all feed on plankton. In the final
screening, we considered vagility. Sedentary fish are given a higher
value than their more widespread relatives, to ensure that any
microplastics found in the GITs are ingested from the assessment
areas. Siganus fuscescens swims quickly and prefers cluster activities
(Carpenter and Niem, 1998), therefore its combined score was
lower than that of Mugil cephalus and Konosirus punctatus. In
summary, we recommend that demersal Mugil cephalus and pelagic
Konosirus punctatus be considered as two species suitable for
monitoring microplastics ingestion in the seafloor and water col-
umn communities.
5. Conclusions
In this study, we revealed the extent of microplastics pollution
in commercial fishes from estuarine areas of Guangdong, South
China. A total of sixty-four wild marine fish were analyzed, repre-
senting six different species. Microplastics were observed in 62
individuals with an average abundance of 5.4 items/individual. The
microplastics in the GITs of the wild marine fish were mainly fibers
and mostly white in color. The size of the microplastics observed
was mostly <1 mm. Species-specific and spatial distribution of
microplastics was observed in terms of abundance, color, size and
shape. We discussed the standards for microplastics. Standard
analytical methods and automated detection tools should be
developed as soon as possible, in order to reliably identify and
quantify microplastics in different environmental substrates. Fish
could provide information on biome monitoring and increase data
on ecological niches not currently monitored. We recommend to
establishing sampling procedures consistent with spatial and sea-
sonal sampling. Demersal Mugil cephalus and pelagic Konosirus
punctatus are two species of fish suitable for monitoring micro-
plastics ingestion in the seafloor and water column communities.
Credit author statement
Chaonan Zhang: Data curation, Writing-Original draft prepara-
tion; Shaodan Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software;
Zhengkun Pan and Di Sun: Visualization, Investigation; Aiguo Zhou
and Shaolin Xie: Software, Validation; Jun Wang: Supervision;
Jixing Zou: Writing- Reviewing and Editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Guangdong Province Univer-
sities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (2018), the
National Key Research and Development Program of China
(2018YFD0900604), Key Research Projects of Universities in
Guangdong Province (2019KZDXM003 and 2020KZDZX1040) and
China Agriculture Research System [CARS-45-49].
Appendix B. Supplementary data
Supplementary data related to this article can be found at
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127656.
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