Microplastic pollution in Italian South Adriatic Harbor Areas

Microplastic (MP) pollution has become an increasing concern for society, since MPs are widely distributed in soil, air, water, and biota. Marine coastal area, especially in land beaches near population centers and within port areas are zones of most alarm. Combating the microplastic pollution requires a thorough understanding of its sources and pathways, which starts from the detection and identification of microplastics in different types of samples. In the present work, we assessed MP pollution at four sandy beach areas as well as within sea water and sediments collected in summer 2021 within port basin of four ports located in the Adriatic Sea of South Italy, dealing with different activities: two commercial/fishery ports (Bari and Barletta) and two tourism ports (Manfredonia and Vieste). Microplastics were isolated by density separation and then examined using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscope for chemical classification and optical microscope for dimensional distribution. The MPs generally had similar features across sites. The found MPs were mostly made by polyethylene (PE), followed by polypropylene (PP) and small percentage of polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The commercial ports (Bari and Barletta) resulted more polluted by MPs with respect to the tourism ports of Manfredonia and Vieste. Tentative hypotheses on source identification of MPs as well as on the influencing factors of their distribution were put forward.