Plasticrust generation and degeneration in rocky intertidal habitats contribute to microplastic pollution

Plastitar records in marine coastal environments worldwide from 1973 to 2023

“…Since all plastitar findings on the Canary Islands were made along onshore wind-exposed coasts facing nearby oil transportation routes, they proposed that plastitar may result from plastics interacting with tanker-released crude oil residues, that are commonly known as "tarballs" (Peters and Siuda, 2014;Warnock et al, 2015), being washed ashore. Domıńguez-Hernańdez et al ( 2022) also discussed their findings in relation to other recently discovered plastic forms (geochemically or -physically altered plastic; Ellrich et al, 2023a) including, for example, "pyroplastics" (incompletely combusted, melted and weathered plastics with a rock-like appearance; Turner et al, 2019) and "plasticrusts" (plastics encrusting intertidal rocks; Gestoso et al, 2019) that derive from plastics being abraded on rocky coasts by water motion (Ehlers et al, 2021;Ellrich et al, 2023b). Finally, based on their regional findings on the Canary Islands and the worldwide co-occurrence of marine plastic and tar pollution, Domıńguez-Hernańdez et al (2022) predicted that plastitar must occur on other coasts as well and that it is, therefore, important to identify such coasts to study the occurrence, formation and accumulation of this new plastic form.…”