Journal
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Volume 120, Issue -, Pages 136-144Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2016.08.001
Keywords
Plastics; Pollution monitoring; Mediterranean sea; Size; Monitoring; Debris
Funding
- KnowSeas + project [201530E018]
- PLAYA + project of the National Research Plan of Spain in R + D + i [CGL2013-49061]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In two sea voyages throughout the Mediterranean (2011 and 2013) that repeated the historical travels of Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria (1847-1915), 71 samples of floating plastic debris were obtained with a Manta trawl. Floating plastic was observed in all the sampled sites, with an average weight concentration of 579.3 g dw km(-2) (maximum value of 9298.2 g dw km(-2)) and an average particle concentration of 147,500 items. km(-2) (the maximum concentration was 1,164,403 items km(-2)). The plastic size distribution showed microplastics (<5 mm) in all the samples. The most abundant particles had a surface area of approximately 1 mm(2) (the mesh size was 333 mu m). The general estimate obtained was a total value of 1455 tons dw of floating plastic in the entire Mediterranean region, with various potential spatial accumulation areas. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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