Journal
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 158, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.104945
Keywords
Marine debris; Floating plastic; Conservation; Western Mediterranean Sea; Sea-surface trawls; Microplastics; Fractal dimension; Coastal pollution
Funding
- pre-doctoral FPI Fellowship from the Conselleria d'Innovacio, Recerca i Turisme of the regional Government of the Balearic Islands - European Social Fund as part of the FSE 2014-2020 operational program
- La Caixa Foundation
- European Commission DG Environment project: Support Mediterranean Member States towards coherent and Coordinated Implementation of the second phase of the MSFD -MEDCIS [11.0661/2016/748067/SUB/ENV.C2]
- EU
- European Regional Development Fund
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Nearshore sea-surface manta trawls were carried out monthly at seven sites along the coastline of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Plastic marine debris was present in all trawls (n = 63) with an overall average abundance of 858,029 +/- 4,082,964 items/km(2) (mean +/- standard deviation) and weight of 4,520 +/- 22,806 g(DW)/km(2) and the micro-plastic fraction (74%) dominating the size class. Polyethylene (LDPE and HDPE) was the most common polymer (70%) with high spatial heterogeneity, especially along the northwestern coast. August showed almost two-fold as much plastic as the other months, and the number of items decreased significantly with distance from the coastline. A positive correlation was found with the fractal dimension of the coastline indicating higher coastal plastic debris retention in areas with a higher fractal dimension and backtracking simulations indicated that marine litter was mainly locally sourced. Overall results indicate a significant small scale variability of nearshore coastal marine plastic in the Balearic Islands.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available