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Research of Plastics and Microplastics in the Black Sea Geoecosystem as a Component of Its Pollution Assessment
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This overview examines the state of research on plastic and microplastic contamination across the Ukrainian portion of the Black Sea, covering both the water column and seafloor sediments. The authors identify monitoring gaps and call for a standardized, European-aligned observation network to track how synthetic polymers move through and accumulate in this ecologically important regional sea.
This publication presents a series of relevant aspects of the problem of pollution of the Black Sea geoecosystem and its geological and aquatic subsystems with plastics and microplastics. The condition of research on this issue, terms and prospects for creation of an effective system for field observations of plastic waste distribution with a microplastic component within the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea geoecosystem are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the modern, European standard adapted component in organizing research on the pollution of the Black Sea geoecosystem by synthetic polymers. The feasibility of a comprehensive study in the pathways and sources of these pollutants’ entry into its aquatic and geological subsystems is determined, taking into account natural characteristics of the ecological subsystem of the North-Western shelf of the Black Sea, while developing an optimum network of relevant monitoring observations. The research is based on data obtained from comprehensive field observations and subsequent analytical studies of the composition, sources of entry, and distribution of plastics and microplastics in modern sandy beach sediments and suspended in sea waters within the coastal region of Odessa in Ukraine. The results of analysis and generalization of materials on applied research of artificial polymers within the coast and waters of the Black Sea obtained by the authors from archival and published literary sources were also employed. Methodological approaches to organizing research on plastics and microplastics in the Black Sea geoecosystem and its main environmental subsystems are proposed as a necessary component of their pollution assessment.
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