Monitoring floating microplastics in coastal wasters of the Western Mediterranean Sea
[eng] Plastic waste is a global threat to ecosystems, especially in marine systems where most of the threats from plastics occur. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most polluted basins due to marine litter, particularly plastics. Although there has been progress made since the first reports were p...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/211464 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/211464 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/690899 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Contaminació del mar Residus Microplàstics Ciència ciutadana Marine pollution Waste products Microplastics Citizen science |
| Sumario: | [eng] Plastic waste is a global threat to ecosystems, especially in marine systems where most of the threats from plastics occur. The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most polluted basins due to marine litter, particularly plastics. Although there has been progress made since the first reports were published almost five decades ago, there are still open questions regarding the sources, distribution, and fate of plastics in the ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and monitoring approaches are still far from being fully harmonized and operational. This Thesis is structured as a collection of five research articles that aim to evaluate the current state, properties, spatiotemporal trends, and sources of floating plastic waste, particularly microplastics, in coastal areas of the Western Mediterranean Sea. After a general introduction, the first study evaluates the current state and properties of floating microplastics in the NW and SW Mediterranean Sea. This study also evaluates the incorporation potential of microplastics into in-situ captures marine organic aggregates which may contribute to their export to the deep-sea. There is a need to expand our knowledge about the processes that determine the distribution and fate of plastics in nearshore coastal areas, where little data has been collected due to the limited accessibility of scientific platforms. Therefore, in the third study, we design and implement a novel net, the “Paddle trawl”, that can be towed from recreational rowing platforms that can be used in citizen science in nearshore coastal areas. This study provided the basis for the third study, where we applied this methodology to a large-scale citizen science project along nearshore areas (< 1 km) of the Catalan coast, which gives us insight into the spatiotemporal intra-annual variability and the properties of microplastics, as well as the factors that determine their distribution. Likewise, the fourth study focuses on monitoring microplastics but considers wider temporal scales to detect long-term trends. We make use of a regional backtracking model that gives us insight into the particular sources and the sources of spatiotemporal variability of microplastics along the coastal areas (1 – 4 km from shore) along the North Catalan coast. Finally, in the fifth study, an assessment of the concentrations, fluxes, and properties of artificial turf fibers is presented that evaluates the state of this particular type of plastic pollutant in surface waters of the NW Mediterranean Sea and rivers. It is important to continue expanding our knowledge of the processes that determine the distribution and fate of plastics, especially in nearshore coastal areas. The studies presented in this Thesis provide valuable insight into the current state of floating plastic waste in the Western Mediterranean Sea and offer new methodologies for monitoring and evaluating the impact of plastic waste in coastal areas. |
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