Quantification of Microplastics in North-Western Mediterranean Harbors: Seasonality and Biofilm-Related Metallic Contaminants

Abstract

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most impacted basins in terms of microplastics pollution. Land-based activities are the major sources of plastic litter to the ocean, with harbors probably representing significant hotspots. In the framework of the SPlasH! project (Stop alle Plastiche in H2O, Interreg Marittimo project), microplastics were sampled in three north-western Mediterranean harbors during summer and winter. In this study, the areal concentrations of microplastics ranged from 5576 to 379,965 items·km−2. A decreasing gradient was observed from the inner to the outer zones of the studied harbors, pointing out these enclosed systems as hotspots regarding microplastic pollution. During summer, the areal concentrations of microplastics were higher than in winter, which could be explained by an enhancement of port activities leading to MPs production. The investigation of microplastics size classes distribution in the surface waters revealed that microplastics within the size range between 300 µm and 500 µm were the least represented. In this study, we assessed trace metal (Pb, Fe, Cu, V, Cd and As) bioaccumulation by the biofilm which developed on the surface of microplastics. The results highlighted that concentrations within the biofilm were higher than those in the surrounding waters. This result strongly suggested trace metal bioaccumulation on microplastics through biofilm formation. When trace metal concentrations were normalized over the corresponding surface of microplastics and macroplastics, higher values were obtained for microplastics, evidencing their enhanced capacities to bioaccumulate contaminants when compared to macroplastics.

Assessing Microplastics and Nanoparticles in the Surface Seawater of Venice Lagoon—Part I: Methodology of Research

“…Baini et al [35] also suggested an increase in MP concentration from coastal areas to distant waters. Other authors [25] emphasized the potential role of harbors in contributing to MPs in marine environments. We found no statistically significant differences in the MP abundance between the sites (p > 0.05).…”

“…It was reported that over 701 marine species ingested MPs [15]. Many studies have demonstrated the long persistence and abundance of MPs [16,17], their unique reactivity and bioavailability for aquatic organisms [18], binding and absorbing of other chemical pollutants from aqueous media [19][20][21][22][23][24][25], and, thus, increasing the potential risk to ecosystems and human population. The estimate of 1.2 million tons of plastic stock that has accumulated in the Mediterranean Sea underscores the severity of plastic pollution [3].…”

“…Floating plastic objects can be collected from water bodies using various methods, such as neuston manta, bottles, buckets, jerry cans, or drones [29,31,34,35]. The assessment of MPs demonstrated the variations in the abundance due to the rainfall, hurricanes, and seasons [2,3,25,34]. For example, it was reported that in Banderas Bay, in Mexico, the higher MP mass occurred one month after the first peak of precipitation [31].…”

Determination of Selected Organic Contaminants in the Port of Gdynia Sediments: Towards Cleaner Baltic Ports

“…Ports represent an additional source of MPs in local waters and the open sea due to their intensive industrial and transport activities. Currently, despite evidence indicating a substantial impact of MP pollution on port ecosystems, its level remains inadequately characterised [62,63].…”

Microplastics in the abyss: a first investigation into sediments at 2443-m depth (Toulon, France)

“…Since the 2000s, attention on microplastics has grown exponentially (Schmid et al 2018) and there are many researchers and teams conducting studies on microplastic sampling and characterisation in environment (Gago et al 2018;Yu et al 2019), their effects on animals (Lusher et al 2017) and humans (Campanale et al 2020), and investigating their relationship with pollutants, such as metals, hydrocarbons etc. (Constant et al 2019;Kutralam-Muniasamy et al 2021;Pereao et al 2020;Tesán Onrubia et al 2021). In marine environment, microplastics are sought in the beach areas (Antunes et al 2018;Bosker et al 2017;Browne et al 2011;Constant et al 2019;Pieper et al 2019) and at different depth from the sea surface along the water column (Andrady 2011;Bagaev et al 2018;Baini et al 2018;Pan et al 2019;Zheng et al 2019) and down to sediments (Anderson et.…”