title: Anthropogenic microfibres pollution in marine biota. A new and simple methodology to minimize airborne contamination.
abstract: Research studies on the effects of microlitter on marine biota have become more and more frequent the last few years. However, there is strong evidence that scientific results based on microlitter analyses can be biased by contamination from air transported fibres. This study demonstrates a low cost and easy to apply methodology to minimize the background contamination and thus to increase results validity. The contamination during the gastrointestinal content analysis of 400 fishes was tested for several sample processing steps of high risk airborne contamination (e.g. dissection, stereomicroscopic analysis, and chemical digestion treatment for microlitter extraction). It was demonstrated that, using our methodology based on hermetic enclosure devices, isolating the working areas during the various processing steps, airborne contamination reduced by 95.3%. The simplicity and low cost of this methodology provide the benefit that it could be applied not only to laboratory but also to field or on board work.
authors.affiliation: Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Water, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece. Electronic address: torrem@hcmr.gr.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Torre
authors.affiliation: Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece.
authors.forename: Nikoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Digka
authors.affiliation: Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Water, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece.
authors.forename: Aikaterini
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anastasopoulou
authors.affiliation: Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Oceanography, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tsangaris
authors.affiliation: Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Water, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece.
authors.forename: Chryssi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mytilineou
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000737:chemistry*; D058448:Biota; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005399:Fishes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Artefact; Background contamination; Litter ingestion; Marine litter pollution; Microfibres; Microlitter