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Abundance and characterization of microplastics in the coastal waters of Tuscany (Italy): The application of the MSFD monitoring protocol in the Mediterranean Sea
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Monitoring surveys across four transects in Tuscan coastal waters found microplastics at all stations in two seasons, with concentrations and size distributions consistent with Mediterranean Sea-wide pollution patterns. The study contributes to implementing the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive's monitoring requirements for microplastics in the Mediterranean.
Monitoring efforts are required to understand the sources, distribution and abundance of microplastic pollution. To verify the abundance of microplastics along the Tuscan coastal waters (Italy), water-column and surface samples were collected in two seasons across four transects at different distances to the coast (0.5, 5, 10 and 20 km), within the implementation of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The results show an average concentration of 0.26 items/m in the water-column samples and 41.1 g/km and 69,161.3 items/km of floating microplastics, with an increase with the distance to the coast The seasonality and the sampling area do not affect the abundance of microplastics. The most abundant size class is 1-2.5 mm as fragments and sheets suggesting that fragmentation of larger polyethylene and polypropylene items could be the main source of microplastics. These data represent the application of a harmonized protocol to make the data on microplastics comparable and reliable.
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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.