Is coastal erosion a source of marine litter pollution? Evidence of coastal dunes being a reservoir of plastics

Abstract

This baseline reports scientific evidence of marine litter items embedded in the dune volume at two study sites on the North Atlantic Portuguese coast. We described how stranded litter participate in the sand dune growth/erosion processes on a natural beach-dune system. From the storm-eroded foredunes on the urbanized beach, we documented exhumed plastics with age up to 38 years. Whether litter burial was due to beach-dune morphodynamic processes, or to irresponsible and/or illegal dumping in the past, this work emphasises the need of improving buried litter census and monitoring on coastal dunes. Coastal erosion processes may further exhume litter buried in dune volumes and on other coastal environments over short- and long-term, re-exposing items into the marine environment. Thus, coastal erosion can be accounted as a secondary diffuse source of littering pollution, beside the multiple sources already identified in the environment.

Keywords: Beach-dune system; Coastal hazard; Environmental monitoring; Marine waste; Ocean pollution.