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As emerging pollutants, microplastics have attracted the attention of scholars from all over the world. However, there is a lack of research on freshwater areas, even in densely populated urban areas. This study investigated eight urban lakes in Changsha, China. It was found that microplastic concentrations ranged from 2425 ± 247.5 items/m 3 to 7050 ± 1060.66 items/m 3 in the surface water of research areas and the maximum concentration was found in Yuejin Lake, a tourist spot in the center of the city. Anthropogenic factors are an important reason for microplastic abundance in urban lakes. The major shape of microplastics was linear and most of the microplastics were transparent. More than 89.5% of the microplastics had a size of less than 2 mm. Polypropylene was the dominant type in the studied waters. This study can provide a valuable reference for a better understanding of microplastic pollution in urban areas of China.

Microplastics pollution in the global marine environment has received much recent research attention. However, microplastics contamination of the freshwater environment has not been fully studied, especially with respect to the surface sediments of urban water areas in China. This study investigated surface sediment samples from twelve selected sites in Changsha, China. The average microplastic concentrations in the surface sediments of the urban water areas ranged from 270.17 ± 48.23 items·kg -1 to 866.59 ± 37.96 items·kg -1 , and the highest concentration of microplastics was found in Yuejin Lake sediments. Most of the collected microplastics were transparent, and most were classified as fragments. Most microplastics (58.31%) were smaller than 1 mm across all samples. Raman analysis indicated that polystyrene dominated the sediments samples. This study provided framework for future studies of microplastics pollution in the surface sediment of urban water areas in China., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)