BASIC STUDY FOR SURVEYING METHOD AND DISTRIBUTION OF MICROPLASTICS IN JAPANESE RIVERS

Abstract

 Microplastics is the major concerns in the ocean's environment. There are many researches and surveys in the oceans, and while there are a few researches in the rivers around the world. As the first step of the microplastics researches, we considered the basic methodology of the microplastics survey. And then we investigated the distribution of microplastics in the multiple Japanese rivers. We found that the order of magnitude of number density of microplastics in the rivers was an one-order lower than that in the sea near Japan.