Microplastics: A potential proxy for tracing extreme flood events in estuarine environments

The transport of microplastics (MPs) is susceptible to being influenced by catchment hydrology; however, there is a notable lack of research on their retention and responses to flood events in estuarine sedimentary records. Herein, we collected two cores in the Yangtze Estuary to explore their microplastic pollution, influencing factors and linkage to flood events. MP abundance exhibited a decreasing trend from the top to the bottom in both cores. Both plastic production and sediment mean grain size showed a significant positive correlation with MP abundance. The sedimentary record displayed a marked surge in MP abundance during the extreme flood period, suggesting a direct influence of flooding on MP deposition. The resuspension of upstream MPs and erosion of land-based MPs by heavy rain might be responsible for this increase. Furthermore, our study identified significant periodicities in MP abundance, closely aligned with the hydrological patterns of the Yangtze River. This study highlights the role of floods in fluvial MP distribution and proposes MPs as a proxy of extreme floods from the 20th century in estuarine environments.