Microplastics in Surface Sediments along the Montenegrin Coast, Adriatic Sea: Types, Occurrence, and Distribution

Abstract

Considering that microplastics are widespread in the marine environment, in this study we evaluated the presence, identify distribution, abundance, shape type, and color of microplastics in surface sediment along the Montenegrin coast, on the Adriatic Sea. These preliminary results provide the first published record of microplastics found in the surface sediment of this area and highlight the importance of microplastics as a component of marine debris. We documented the presence of microplastics at all sampling locations. The identification of polymer types was performed using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, whereby the presence of three polymer types became evident: polypropylene (54.5%), polyethylene (9.7%), and acrylate copolymer (2.0%). Another 22.2% of particles were unidentified polymers, and the remaining 11.5% were non-synthetic materials. The most common shape type of microplastics was filaments (55.5%), followed by granules (26.3%), fragments (14.9%), and films (3.3%). The dominant colors of microplastics followed the order: blue > yellow > red > clear > black > green > blue-white > white. The average abundance of microplastics in all sampling locations was 609 pieces of microplastic/kg of dry sediment. Compared with other studies, the surface sediment of the Montenegrin coast is moderately to highly polluted with microplastics, depending on the examined location.

Occurrence of Natural and Synthetic Micro-Fibers in the Mediterranean Sea: A Review

“…The presence of anthropogenic fibers both in H. Tubulosa and sediments (see Table 3) shows the large diffusion of these pollutants, supporting the hypothesis of active ingestion by these organisms from the surrounding environment. Similar results were obtained from Boskovic et al, 2021, where cellulose fibers in nine out of ten sediment samples of the Montenegrin coast were detected, which highlighted the predominance of fibers among all other MPs [96]. PP was detected in all the different sampling locations, while PE was in seven out of ten.…”

“…As highlighted by Prata et al (2021), less than 50% of studies on MPs do not collect and analyze controls and blanks during the sampling phase and processing step of the sample [119]. Moreover, only some studies involve taking "control" samples of possible sources of contamination from MPs and MFs and the use of colored cotton clothes [96,[121][122][123][124][125]). Finally, as highlighted in a study by Scopetani et al (2020), the level of self-contamination in MPs studies is not negligible, highlighting the importance of finding a standardized method to avoid the overestimation of MPs and MFs in environmental matrices [126].…”

An Emerging Role of Micro- and Nanoplastics in Vascular Diseases

“…The presence of MPs in aquatic environments has been reported elsewhere as a global concern [38]. MPs have been found in abiotic and biotic areas of the ocean, including beaches [39,40], surface waters [41,42], sediment [43][44][45][46], fish [47][48][49], and shellfish [50,51].…”

Microplastics in Mediterranean Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis: Comparison between Cultured and WildType Mussels from the Northern Adriatic

“…This could be due to the differences in the used methods or the years in which the surveys were conducted (taking into account also the different sampled areas). In the south of the Adriatic Sea along the beaches of Montenegro, 609 MPs/kg of dry sediment was recorded, and the most documented shape of MPs was filaments, followed by fragments and films [26]. Even though the sediment was mostly screened for the presence of MPs in the Adriatic Sea, some studies have searched for MPs in the marine biota, mostly in fishes [27][28][29] and crustaceans [30].…”