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Microplastic contamination and fluxes in a touristic area at the SE Gulf of California
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Researchers assessed microplastic contamination in beach sands, surface waters, and sediment traps in the tourist city of Mazatlan, Mexico, finding higher concentrations during the rainy season and in urban areas, with polyethylene and polypropylene fragments being the most abundant types.
Microplastics (MPs) are long-lasting anthropogenic pollutants, observed in all types of natural environments. The MPs abundance and their temporal variability in beach sands, surface waters (manta trawl), and suspended sediments (sediment trap) were assessed in Mazatlán, Mexico, a tourism destination on the northern Pacific coast, under the hypothesis that MP contamination is influenced by rainfall and population density. The MP concentrations in beach sands from urban and rural areas nearby Mazatlán (4-36 MPs m) and in surface waters (1.7-2.0 MPs m) were comparable between type of sampling sites; whereas the MP fluxes in sediment trap samples varied widely (40-782 MPs m day) with highest values during the rainfall season. The MPs recovered were mostly white/clear (48-54%), and the prevailing shapes were fragments in beach sands and surface waters (59-80%), and fibers (75%) in suspended sediments. The synthetic polymers polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate were the most abundant in the study area.
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Beach sand from Coatzacoalcos, Mexico was tested for tiny plastic pieces in both dry and rainy seasons. More microplastics were found during the rainy season than the dry season, with differences in plastic type and surface wear likely linked to rainfall, river flow, and ocean currents.
Seasonal evidences of microplastics in environmental matrices of a tourist dominated urban estuary in Gulf of Mexico, Mexico
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Spatial and seasonal variations in microplastic abundance were examined across water, sediments, and commercial fish in a tourist-impacted estuary in the Gulf of Mexico, finding peak contamination during dry season and at sites closest to urban and fishing activities.
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Researchers sampled surface microplastics monthly across four bays of the central Mexican Pacific over one year, finding median concentrations between 0.26 and 0.40 particles per square meter with polypropylene and polyethylene as the dominant polymers. Fibers dominated most samples, though Manzanillo Bay showed seasonal dominance of fragments during the rainy season.
Identificación y cuantificación de microplásticos en sedimentos de tres playas recreativas de la costa de Campeche
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Researchers identified and quantified microplastics in sediments from three recreational beaches in Campeche, Mexico, comparing concentrations across different seasons and sampling locations. The study found microplastics at all sites, with seasonal variation suggesting that weather patterns influence microplastic distribution on these tourist beaches.
Microplastics in tourist beaches of Huatulco Bay, Pacific coast of southern Mexico
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Researchers conducted the first survey of microplastics on tourist beaches in Huatulco Bay, Mexico, collecting 70 sediment samples across two seasons and finding fibrous microplastics at all sampled beaches, with the highest counts linked to tourism activity and hotel and restaurant effluent discharge.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.