Microplastic pollution in sublittoral coastal sediments of a North Atlantic island: The case of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain)

Villanova-Solano, Cristina; Díaz-Peña, Francisco Javier; Hernández-Sánchez, Cintia; González‐Sálamo, Javier; González-Pleiter, Miguel; Vega-Moreno, Daura; Fernández-Piñas, Francisca; Fraile-Nuez, E.; Machín, Francisco

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.132530

Cited by 24 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…na, not available. The most abundant microplastic type in our study was microfibres (representing 76.77%), which is in line with previously reported environmental microplastic concentrations in subtidal sediments [84], in open ocean subsurface water [85] and marine biota intestinal contents [83], including studies on the Portuguese coast [86][87][88]. Particularly, our result is also in line with other studies analysing ingestion of microplastics by cetaceans and other marine top predators, such as seabirds and sea turtles [19,48,50,51,68,82,83,89].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Microplastics in Cetaceans Stranded on the Portuguese Coast

Sá,

Torres-Pereira,

Ferreira

et al. 2023

Animals

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This study characterises microplastics in small cetaceans on the coast of Portugal and assesses the relationship between several biological variables and the amount of detected microplastics. The intestines of 38 stranded dead cetaceans were processed in the laboratory, with digestion methods adapted to the amount of organic matter in each sample. The influence of several biological and health variables (e.g., species, sex, body condition) on the amount of microplastics was tested in all analysed species and particularly in common dolphins, due to the larger number of available samples. Most of the analysed individuals had microplastics in the intestine (92.11%), with harbour porpoises revealing a significantly higher median number of microplastics than common dolphins, probably due to their different diets, use of habitat and feeding strategies. None of the other tested variables significantly influenced the number of microplastics. Moreover, the microplastics found should not be enough to cause physical or chemical sublethal effects, although the correlation between microplastic ingestion and plastic additive bioaccumulation in cetacean tissues requires further investigation. Future monitoring in biota should rely on improved and standardised protocols for microplastic analyses in complex samples to allow for accurate analyses of larger samples and spatio-temporal comparisons.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Microplastics in Cetaceans Stranded on the Portuguese Coast

Sá,

Torres-Pereira,

Ferreira

et al. 2023

Animals

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“…The low abundance of MPs recorded at the majority of sites would indicate that none of these are accumulation areas and may reflect recent deposition, may be indicative of underwater activity in the area, and their distance to terrestrial sources. Canensi et al 46 and Villanova-Solano et al 51 similarly found no relationship between water depth and the density of MPs.…”

Section: ■ Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The study area includes surface sediments, which generally become finer with increasing water depth and consist of clayey sands overlying silty clays, which are often simply classified as mud or deep sea mud. , Except for the very fine sand-dominated sediment on the continental shelf, most sediment was found to be poorly to very poorly sorted indicative of a low energy muddy area . Villanova-Solano et al found an increased abundance of MPs with moderately sorted sediment as opposed to poorly sorted in the shallow coastal sediments in La Palma, Canary Islands. Vermeiren et al state that MP abundance decreases exponentially with increasing sediment grain size on sandy shores, while Marques Mendes et al indicate that both distribution and abundance of MPs in coastal sediments depends on grain size and distance from sources.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Sea Microplastic Pollution Extends Out to Sediments in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean Margins

Nash¹,

Joyce²,

Pagter

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Microplastics are ubiquitous emerging contaminants found in every habitat surveyed, building upon international databases globally. Costs and accessibility often correlate to few deep sea sediment surveys, restricting the number of stations within a given sampling area. An extensive survey of the Porcupine Seabight, Porcupine Bank, the Goban Spur, and south-western canyons resulted in identifying microplastics in deep sea sediment surface layers from 33 of the 44 stations sampled (75%), with a total of 83 particles (74 synthetic and 9 natural) recorded. No microplastic hotspots were identified, and abundances (kg d.w. −1 ) were not correlated with distance from land, depth, or the presence of macrolitter on the seafloor. Understanding the sources of deep sea microplastics, such as marine traffic, is crucial to developing effective mitigation strategies as well as further monitoring campaigns targeting microplastic pollution in areas with significant deep sea biodiversity such as the Porcupine Seabright.

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“…The abundance of MPs in sediment ranged from 5.7 to 24.7 items/30 g dw (relevant to 190~823 items/kg dw). The abundance of MPs observed in the present study was much higher than that found in the south of the Caspian Sea, reaching 0-48 items/kg dw [53], and in the Bay of Bengal of India, reaching 0.33-317.67 items/kg, but it was comparatively lower than that found in lake shore sediment of the Montenegrin Coast of the Adriatic Sea basin (150-2500 items/kg dw) [54] and in coastal sediment of La Palma in Spain (2682 ± 827 items/kg dw) [55]. Overall, the pollution status of the MPs in the Daya Bay was in the middle level.…”

Section: Characteristics Of Microplastics Of Daya Baymentioning

confidence: 74%

Microplastic Pollution and Its Potential Correlation with Environmental Factors in Daya Bay, South China Sea

Liu

Liao

Deng

et al. 2023

JMSE

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Microplastics (MPs) have been given considerable attention due to their risk to aquatic organisms in marine environments. In this study, MPs’ abundance and their potential correlation with environmental factors were investigated from 26 sites in Daya Bay, South China Sea. The results showed that the abundance of MPs was 1.8–13.87 items/L in surface water and 190–823 items/kg (dry weight) in sediment. The most abundant shape of MPs in both water and sediment was fiber, the most abundant particle size was 0.5–1 mm and the most abundant color was transparent. In addition, the most common polymer type of MPs was polyethylene terephthalate (PET), followed by rayon (RY), polypropylene (PP), cellulose (CL) and polyethylene (PE). The abundance of MPs in sediment was significantly correlated with sediment organic N and C (p < 0.05), while that in surface water had no significant correlation with the environmental factors except dissolved oxygen (p > 0.05). A factor analysis showed that MPs in sediment might share similar sources with organic N and C, which were mainly from the autochthonous sedimentation of marine organisms, and MPs might sediment jointly with organic matter. In summary, this study reflects on MP pollution and the potential correlation with environmental factors, providing essential data for governmental agencies to formulate microplastic pollution control policies.

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Microplastic pollution in sublittoral coastal sediments of a North Atlantic island: The case of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain)

Cited by 24 publications

References 42 publications

Microplastics in Cetaceans Stranded on the Portuguese Coast

Microplastics in Cetaceans Stranded on the Portuguese Coast

Deep Sea Microplastic Pollution Extends Out to Sediments in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean Margins

Microplastic Pollution and Its Potential Correlation with Environmental Factors in Daya Bay, South China Sea

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