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Occurrence of Natural and Synthetic Micro-Fibers in the Mediterranean Sea: A Review
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This review compiled data on natural and synthetic microfibers in the Mediterranean Sea, finding that cellulosic and regenerated natural fibers often outnumber synthetic plastic fibers at many sampling sites, yet natural fibers are excluded from most microplastic definitions. The authors argued that natural fibers should be included in microplastic monitoring frameworks given their abundance and potential ecological effects.
Among microplastics (MPs), fibers are one of the most abundant shapes encountered in the aquatic environment. Growing attention is being focused on this typology of particles since they are considered an important form of marine contamination. Information about microfibers distribution in the Mediterranean Sea is still limited and the increasing evidence of the high amount of fibers in the aquatic environment should lead to a different classification from MPs which, by definition, are composed only of synthetic materials and not natural. In the past, cellulosic fibers (natural and regenerated) have been likely included in the synthetic realm by hundreds of studies, inflating "micro-plastic" counts in both environmental matrices and organisms. Comparisons are often hampered because many of the available studies have explicitly excluded the micro-fibers (MFs) content due, for example, to methodological problems. Considering the abundance of micro-fibers in the environment, a chemical composition analysis is fundamental for toxicological assessments. Overall, the results of this review work provide the basis to monitor and mitigate the impacts of microfiber pollution on the sea ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea, which can be used to investigate other basins of the world for future risk assessment.
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This review examines microfiber contamination in marine environments globally, noting that both synthetic and non-synthetic fibers are common pollutants but that non-synthetic fibers are routinely undercounted in studies. The authors argue that focusing only on synthetic microplastics understates the true scale of microparticle pollution entering the ocean.
Marine environment microfiber contamination: Global patterns and the diversity of microparticle origins
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Global patterns of microfiber contamination in the marine environment were reviewed, documenting that synthetic and non-synthetic fibers are found in all major ocean basins, with fibers being the most common microplastic type along shorelines. The review highlights that non-synthetic and semi-synthetic fibers are frequently overlooked in monitoring despite being a significant component of total microfiber pollution.
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Researchers analyzed open-ocean textile fibers and found that a significant proportion are not synthetic plastics but rather natural fibers such as cotton and wool, challenging the assumption that all environmental fibers constitute microplastic pollution. This study calls for more precise characterization of fiber types in environmental monitoring to accurately assess plastic versus non-plastic contamination.
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