title: Microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea: Deposition in coastal shallow sediments, spatial variation and preferential grain size.
abstract: Marine litter loads in sea compartments are an emergent issue due to their ecological and biological consequences. This study addresses microplastic quantification and morphological description to test spatial differences along an anthropogenic gradient of coastal shallow sediments and further on to evaluate the preferential deposition of microplastics in a given sediment grain fraction. Sediments from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) contained the highest concentrations of microplastics (MPs): up to 0.90 ± 0.10 MPs/g suggesting the transfer of microplastics from source areas to endpoint areas. In addition, a high proportion of microplastic filaments were found close to populated areas whereas fragment type microplastics were more common in MPAs. There was no clear trend between sediment grain size and microplastic deposition in sediments, although microplastics were always present in two grain size fractions: 2 mm > x > 1 mm and 1 mm > x 0.5 mm.
authors.affiliation: Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015 Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Electronic address: c.alomar@ba.ieo.es.
authors.forename: Carme
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alomar
authors.affiliation: Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Estarellas
authors.affiliation: Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Salud
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Deudero
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010316:Particle Size; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Anthropogenic gradient; Balearic islands; Contamination; MPAs; Marine litter; Sieve fractions