Journal
MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN
Volume 133, Issue -, Pages 543-552Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.06.016
Keywords
Microplastic; MSFD; Floating plastic; Water-column plastic; Coastal waters; Mediterranean Sea
Funding
- Tuscany Region [1008, 02/12/2013, 43113/2013]
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Monitoring efforts are required to understand the sources, distribution and abundance of microplastic pollution. To verify the abundance of microplastics along the Tuscan coastal waters (Italy), water-column and surface samples were collected in two seasons across four transects at different distances to the coast (0.5, 5, 10 and 20 km), within the implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The results show an average concentration of 0.26 items/m3 in the water-column samples and 41.1 g/km(2) and 69,161.3 items/km(2) of floating microplastics, with an increase with the distance to the coast The seasonality and the sampling area do not affect the abundance of microplastics. The most abundant size class is 1-2.5 mm as fragments and sheets suggesting that fragmentation of larger polyethylene and polypropylene items could be the main source of microplastics. These data represent the application of a harmonized protocol to make the data on microplastics comparable and reliable.
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