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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Protocol for Microplastics Sampling on the Sea Surface and Sample Analysis
Published on: December 16, 2016
Microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea: Deposition in coastal shallow sediments, spatial variation and preferential
Carme Alomar1, Fernando Estarellas1, Salud Deudero1
1Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico de Baleares, Moll de Ponent s/n, 07015 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Abstract:
Marine litter loads in sea compartments are an emergent issue due to their ecological and biological consequences. This study addresses microplastic quantification and morphological description to test spatial differences along an anthropogenic gradient of coastal shallow sediments and further on to evaluate the preferential deposition of microplastics in a given sediment grain fraction. Sediments from Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) contained the highest concentrations of microplastics (MPs): up to 0.90 ± 0.10 MPs/g suggesting the transfer of microplastics from source areas to endpoint areas. In addition, a high proportion of microplastic filaments were found close to populated areas whereas fragment type microplastics were more common in MPAs. There was no clear trend between sediment grain size and microplastic deposition in sediments, although microplastics were always present in two grain size fractions: 2 mm > x > 1 mm and 1 mm > x 0.5 mm.
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