Microplastic Contamination in Water and Sediment at Maninjau Lake, Indonesia

ASM Sc. J., 20(2), 2025

Published on November 7, 2025

https://doi.org/10.32802/asmscj.2025.1583

Author: Noverita D. Takarina, Tri R. Soeprobowati, Puti S. Komala, Luki Subehi, Marta Wojewódka-Przybył, Anna I.S. Purwiyanto and Yulianto Suteja

Abstract

Maninjau Lake in Agam Regency, West Sumatra Province, Indonesia , plays a significant role in the primary supply of water, hydroelectric energy plants, tourism, and floating net cage cultivation. This study aims to examine the quantity of microplastic contamination in surface water and sediment in Maninjau Lake at 10 various locations. The microplastics were quantified in terms of abundance and categorised by their shape, size, and polymer. The results showed that microplastics abundance at all locations in water and sediment varied from 65.63 to 195.31 particles/m 3 and 199.52 to 7000 particles/kg DW. Fibre, film, fragment, and granule-shaped microplastics were identified in the sediment and water samples. The size ranges of the microplastics found in all samples were 300, 300-500, 500-100, and >1000 µm. The amount of microplastic abundance among locations was not significantly different (p>0.05), but it varied in form and size (p<0.05) with fibre and <300µm particle size in surface water and sediment, which were higher than in others. The dominant polymer type on the surface water and sediments is polyvinyl chloride. Since Maninjau is one of the prioritised lakes in Indonesia, these findings can be useful and may contribute to contamination management, especially in terms of microplastics.

Keywords: debris, floating net cage, freshwater lake, litter