Characterization of tidally accumulated plastic waste and its effect on
seedling growth in sand-filled mangrove forest at Eagle Island, Niger
Delta, Nigeria
Abstract
Plastic pollution has become a global problem with the proliferation
many plastic goods. This study thus hypothesized that accumulated
plastic waste will have adverse effect on mangrove growth. The study was
carried out at a sand-filled and deforested mangrove forest at Eagle
Island. Ten soils samples each (n =20) were collected underneath
accumulated plastic waste vertically and horizontally. The soils were
put in polythene bags and sent to the laboratory for analysis of total
hydrocarbon content (THC), and heavy metals i.e., Zinc (Zn), Lead (Pb)
and Cadmium (Cd) using the HACH DR 890 colorimeter (wavelength 420 nm)
and microwave accelerated reaction system (MARS Xpress, North Carolina)
respectively. In addition, mangrove (Rhizophora species) seedlings were
also collected with soils from the plastic waste and non-plastic waste
sites (control). The result shows that there is no significant
difference in heavy metal concentration along the profile i.e., surface,
and sub-surface soils (F1, 30 = 1.83, P = 0.186), and soil gradients
(F3, 28 = 0.60, P = 0.619) of the soil. In contrast, there is
significant difference in seedling growth between the control and
plastic soils (F4, 200 , 65.24, P<0.001). Furthermore,
microbial population showed significant difference horizontally (F3, 11
= 3.86, P = 0.04) but not vertically (F1, 11 = 4.60, P = 0.055) in
plastic soil. This result implies that plastic pollutants can migrate
horizontally to contaminate nearby mangroves. Thus, plastic waste should
be managed to prevent pollutants from entering the food chain to
contaminate humans.