Amount and distribution of neustonic micro-plastic off the Western Sardinian coast (Central-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Amount and distribution of neustonic micro-plastic off the Western Sardinian coast (Central-Western Mediterranean Sea)

2014 / Mediterranean / research

Amount and distribution of neustonic micro-plastic off the Western Sardinian coast (Central-Western Mediterranean Sea)

Giuseppe Andrea de Lucia, Ilaria Caliani, Stefano Marra, Andrea Camedda,
Stefania Coppa, Luigi Alcaro, Tommaso Campani, Matteo Giannetti, Daniele
Coppola, Anna Maria Cicero, Cristina Panti, Matteo Baini, Cristiana
Guerranti, Letizia Marsili, Giorgio Massaro, Maria Cristina Fossi, Marco
Matiddi, Amount and distribution of neustonic micro-plastic off the
Western Sardinian coast (Central-Western Mediterranean Sea), Marine
Environmental Research, Available online 4 April 2014, ISSN 0141-1136,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.03.017.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113614000725)
Abstract: A plethora of different sampling methodologies has been used
to document the presence of micro-plastic fragments in sea water.
European Marine Strategy suggests to improve standard techniques to make
future data comparable. We use Manta Trawl sampling technique to
quantify abundance and distribution of micro-plastic fragments in
Sardinian Sea (Western Mediterranean), and their relation with
phthalates and organoclorine in the neustonic habitat. Our results
highlight a quite high average plastic abundance value (0.15 items/m3),
comparable to the levels detected in other areas of the Mediterranean.
?Site? is the only factor that significantly explains the differences
observed in micro-plastic densities. Contaminant levels show high
spatial and temporal variation. In every station, HCB is the contaminant
with the lowest concentration while PCBs shows the highest levels. This
work, in line with Marine Strategy directives, represents a preliminary
study for the analysis of plastic impact on marine environment of Sardinia.
Keywords: micro-plastics; marine litter; Marine Strategy; Sardinia;
environmental impact; pollution monitoring; phthalates

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