scholarly journals First record of ‘plasticrusts’ and ‘pyroplastic’ from the European Mediterranean Sea

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja M. Ehlers ◽  
Julius A. Ellrich
Keyword(s):  
First Record ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Sea Waves ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Coastal Habitats ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Ne Atlantic Ocean ◽  
Terrestrial Environments ◽  
Giglio Island

AbstractWe report the presence of ‘plasticrusts’ and ‘pyroplastic’ from coastal habitats in Giglio island, Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy. These novel plastic debris types have only recently been described for the first time from Madeira island (NE Atlantic Ocean) and the United Kingdom, respectively. While ‘plasticrusts’ are generated by sea waves smashing plastic debris against intertidal rocks, ‘pyroplastic’ derives from (un)deliberately burnt plastic waste. Using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, we identified the ‘plasticrust’ material as polyethylene (PE) and the ‘pyroplastic’ material as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These polymers are widely used in everyday products and, therefore, contribute heavily to plastic pollution in aquatic and terrestrial environments worldwide. Furthermore, our field surveys suggest that ‘plasticrust’ abundance is related to wave-exposure and that the ‘pyroplastic’ derived from beverage bottles which we frequently found along the Giglio coast. Overall, our findings corroborate the notion that ‘plasticrusts’ and ‘pyroplastic’ are common debris types in marine coastal habitats.

scholarly journals Seagrasses provide a novel ecosystem service by trapping marine plastics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sanchez-Vidal ◽  
Miquel Canals ◽  
William P. de Haan ◽  
Javier Romero ◽  
Marta Veny
Keyword(s):  
Plant Material ◽  
Coastal Ocean ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Novel Ecosystem ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Seagrass Meadows ◽  
Lignocellulosic Fibers ◽  
Natural Aggregates ◽  
Negatively Buoyant

AbstractThere is strong evidence that the seafloor constitutes a final sink for plastics from land sources. There is also evidence that part of the plastics lying on the shallow seafloor are washed up back to the shoreline. However, little is known on the natural trapping processes leading to such landwards return. Here we investigate microplastics and larger plastic debris within beached seagrass remains including balls (aegagropilae) made of natural aggregates of vegetal fibers intertwined by seawater motion. We found up to 1470 plastic items per kg of plant material, which were mainly composed of negatively buoyant polymer filaments and fibers. Our findings show that seagrass meadows promote plastic debris trapping and aggregation with natural lignocellulosic fibers, which are then ejected and escape the coastal ocean. Our results show how seagrasses, one of the key ecosystems on Earth in terms of provision of goods and services, also counteract marine plastic pollution. In view of our findings, the regression of seagrass meadows in some marine regions acquires a new dimension.

scholarly journals Ophelia roscoffensis Augener, 1910: a new polychaete record in Italian waters

Check List ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-495
Author(s):  
Emanuele Mancini ◽  
Francesco Tiralongo ◽  
Daniele Ventura ◽  
Andrea Bonifazi
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
First Record ◽  
Posidonia Oceanica ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
The Mediterranean

Ophelia roscoffensis Augener, 1910 is an opheliid worm identifiable by the number of anterior abranchiate chaetigers and the number of the gill pairs. Although it was already reported in the Mediterranean Sea, it has never been found in the Italian waters. This study represents the first record of Ophelia roscoffensis in the Italian waters. A total of 18 specimens were collected along the coast of Civitavecchia (Tyrrhenian Sea) in a Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile bed at a depth of 7 m.

scholarly journals Initial Analysis of Plastic Debris Accumulation in the Estuary of Wonorejo River, Surabaya, Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
pp. 07001
Author(s):  
Setyo Budi Kurniawan ◽  
Muhammad Fauzul Imron
Keyword(s):  
River Estuary ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Sampling Point ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
Debris Accumulation ◽  
Plastic Bags ◽  
Sampling Points ◽  
Advance Research ◽  
One Way Anova

The purpose of this research was to investigate the accumulation of plastic debris in the Wonorejo River Estuary, Surabaya, Indonesia. Visible plastic debris were collected from three (3) sampling points along the intertidal area of Wonorejo River Estuary. The correlation between sampling points (SPs) and the amount of the collected plastic debris (CPD) was analysed using one-way ANOVA. Result of one-way ANOVA showed that the sampling point was significantly affect the amount of the collected plastic debris (p<0.05). A further analysis using Tukey’s Significance Honest Test indicating a significantly higher CPD on SP2 compared to the SP1 and SP3 (p<0.05). The amount of CPD were 126.07±12.00 g dry weight/m2 from SP1, 375.97±16.72 g dry weight/m2 from SP2, and 291.13±36.28 g dry weight/m2 from SP3. The highest percentage of collected debris item was plastic bags (up to 57.90%), followed by bottle caps (up to 16.65%). The most identified plastic types were Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) (up to 73.13%), followed by Polypropylene (PP) (up to 17.22%). Understanding the accumulation of plastic debris in estuary is a fundamental requirement to conduct an advance research related to the marine plastic pollution and to determine further actions to solve this problem.

Marine alien Mollusca in Italy: a critical review and state of the knowledge

2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 1357-1365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Crocetta
Keyword(s):  
Critical Review ◽  
Adriatic Sea ◽  
First Record ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Ionian Sea ◽  
Northern Adriatic Sea ◽  
Northern Adriatic ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Molluscan Species

The state of the knowledge about the marine alien molluscan species from Italy is provided based on a critical review of records compiled from an extensive literature survey and from unpublished data obtained from 2005 to 2010. Based on the IUCN definition of ‘alien’, 35 molluscan taxa (18 Gastropoda, 16 Bivalvia and 1 Cephalopoda) are reported here, for each of which the following data (collected up to December 2010) are provided: published and unpublished records from the coastal and offshore territorial seawaters of Italy, including lagoons, within the 14 biogeographical sea divisions covering the Italian shores, date of first record, most plausible vector(s) of introduction and establishment status. The southern Ionian Sea, the northern Adriatic Sea and the eastern-central Tyrrhenian Sea resulted to be the areas most affected by alien molluscan introductions. The rate of records of new alien species (evaluated on the basis of live findings) is quite uniform over five decades, with six to eight species recorded per decade. The analysis of the vectors showed shipping/maritime transport to be the most common vector of introduction (40%), followed by trade (24%). Nineteen alien molluscan species (54%) were considered as established in Italy.

First record of Phytophthora inflata in the United Kingdom

1992 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. HALL ◽  
S. DOBSON ◽  
C. NICHOLLS
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
First Record ◽  
The United Kingdom

Multi-Scale Numerical Analysis of the Field Efficiency of an Ocean Plastic Cleanup Array

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Sainte-Rose ◽  
Laurent Lebreton ◽  
Joao de Lima Rego ◽  
Frank Kleissen ◽  
Julia Reisser
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Target Area ◽  
Japanese Island ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Field Efficiency ◽  
The Impact

The impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems and global economy has been drawing public concern since the end of the 20th century. To mitigate this issue, The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) Foundation is developing technologies to extract, prevent, and intercept plastic debris from coastal and oceanic environments. The core technology being optimized is the use of floating booms placed perpendicular to the main ocean plastic flow so it can concentrate plastic debris to a point where it can be extracted, shipped and processed in a cost-effective manner. In order to optimize the system’s field efficiency (i.e. mass of ocean plastic captured per length of floating boom), a multi-scale approach has been elaborated, where temporal and spatial scales span over several orders of magnitude. Here we introduce this general multi-scale method alongside its assumptions and multi-scale models. We then describe two application examples, the first corresponding to our coastal pilot in the Japanese island of Tsushima and the second related to our main cleanup target area: the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, situated between Hawaii and the US west coast.

First record of Ornithonyssus bacoti from a domestic pet in the United Kingdom

2004 ◽  
Vol 154 (14) ◽  
pp. 437-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. T. Fox ◽  
A. S. Baker ◽  
R. G. Farquhar ◽  
E. Eve
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
First Record ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Ornithonyssus Bacoti

First record of Amphiura securigera (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) in the Tyrrhenian (Mediterranean) Sea

2000 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-176
Author(s):  
P. Rinelli
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Sea ◽  
First Record ◽  
Water Circulation ◽  
Brittle Star ◽  
Tyrrhenian Sea ◽  
Bathymetric Range ◽  
First Finding ◽  
The Mediterranean

The first finding of the brittle star Amphiura securigera (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) in the Tyrrhenian Sea is reported. According to literature data, biotopic and edaphic features of the bottom indicate that this species preferentially lives in detritic mud-free biotopes characterized by good water circulation. Present data show that in the Mediterranean Sea A. securigera extends its bathymetric range as far as the circalittoral and upper bathyal floors.

scholarly journals Relative Abundance of Floating Plastic Debris and Neuston in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Egger ◽  
Lauren Quiros ◽  
Giulia Leone ◽  
Francesco Ferrari ◽  
Christiana M. Boerger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
North Pacific Ocean ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Relative Distribution ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Plastic Debris ◽  
The North ◽  
Oceanic Gyres

Despite an increasing research conducted on ocean plastic pollution over the last decade, there are still large knowledge gaps in our current understanding of how floating plastic debris accumulating in subtropical oceanic gyres may harm the surface-associated pelagic community known as neuston. Removing floating plastic debris from the surface ocean can minimize potentially adverse effects of plastic pollution on the neuston, as well as prevent the formation of large quantities of secondary micro- and nanoplastics. However, due to the scarcity of observational data from remote and difficult to access offshore waters, neuston dynamics in subtropical oceanic gyres and thus the potential impacts of plastic pollution as well as of cleanup activities on the neuston remain uncertain. Here, we provide rare observational data of the relative distribution of floating plastic debris (0.05–5 cm in size) and members of the neuston in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Our results reveal that the dominant neustonic species co-occurring with high concentrations of floating plastic debris in the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP) such as Porpita porpita, Halobates spp., pteropods, isopods, heteropods, and crabs depict either a low atmospheric drag due to physical attributes or a potential plastic-associated fitness benefit such as increased surface area for oviposition and structure for habitat. We further observe relatively higher plastic to organism ratios inside the NPGP for most target species compared to waters outside the NPGP. The findings presented here provide a first observational baseline to develop ecological models that can help evaluate the long-term risks of plastic pollution and of offshore cleanup activities for neuston in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. We further suggest that offshore mitigation strategies aiming at removing floating plastic debris from the ocean surface need to evaluate both, the direct impact of neuston bycatch during plastic removal on neuston population dynamics, as well as the potential benefits of reducing the negative effects of plastic pollution on the neuston.

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