Small plastic debris in sediments from the Central Adriatic Sea: Types, occurrence and distribution

Abstract

This is the first survey to investigate the occurrence and extent of microplastic contamination in sediments collected along a coast-open sea 140km-long transect in the Central Adriatic Sea. Plastic debris extracted from 64 samples of sediments were counted, weighted and identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Several types of plastic particles were observed in 100% of the stations. Plastic particles ranged from 1 to 30mm in length. The primary shape types by number were filaments (69.3%), followed by fragments (16.4%), and film (14.3%). Microplastics (1-5mm) accounted for 65.1% of debris, mesoplastics (5-20mm) made up 30.3% of total amount, while macro debris (>20mm) accounted for 4.6% of total plastics collected. Identification through FT-IR spectroscopy evidenced the presence of 6 polymer types: the majority of plastic debris were nylon, polyethylene and ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer. Our data are a baseline for microplastic research in the Adriatic Sea.

Keywords: Adriatic Sea; FT-IR spectroscopy; Microplastics; Polymer composition.