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Inferring microplastics origins in the Mediterranean Sea by coupling modelling and in-situ measurements
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Researchers combined Lagrangian particle-tracking modelling with in-situ manta-net trawls north of the Balearic Islands and along the Balearic Front in autumn 2019 to infer the origins of Mediterranean microplastics. They found that the area north of Mallorca acts as a temporary three-month retention zone for microplastics originating from the Northern Current and Gulf of Lion, while retention along the Balearic Front was less clear due to frontal dynamics and strong northerly winds.
This work focuses on the dynamics and retention of microplastics (MP) in the Mediterranean. MP manta-net trawls were performed in autumn 2019 north of the Balearic Islands and along the Balearic Front (BF). Lagrangian modelling was used to find the MP collected origin during the campaign. These combined results show that North of Mallorca is a temporary retention zone of 3 months variability, with MP origin being the Northern Current (NC) and the Gulf of Lion (GOL). Retention processes were less clear along the BF, due to frontal dynamics together with the strong northerly winds. However, it appears that the origin can differ between the North (i.e. the large North-Westerly basin, including the GOL and the NC path) and the South (short distances around the zone) of this front. In both areas, the wind and the current variability are strongly conditioning the existence and position of the MP concentration zones.
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