Are Mediterranean Marine Protected Areas sheltered from plastic pollution?

Marine Pollution Bulletin
Svitlana LiubartsevaR Lecci

Abstract

Comparisons of six selected Mediterranean MPAs were conducted to find similarities and site-specific differences in coastline fluxes and sources of plastic marine litter. Output from the recently developed 2D Lagrangian model for the Mediterranean was post-processed to study (1) the National Park of ses Salines d'Eivissa i Formentera, (2) Nature Reserve of Bouches de Bonifacio, (3) North-East Malta MPA, (4) Specially Protected Area of Porto Cesareo, (5) Community Importance Site of Torre Guaceto, and (6) Ethniko Thalassio Parko Alonnisou Voreion Sporadon. Model coastline fluxes of plastic ranged from 0.4 to3.6 kg (km day)-1, which is relatively low compared to the average flux of 6.2 ± 0.8 kg (km day)-1 calculated over the Mediterranean 2013-2017. Shipping was identified as a major source of plastic litter in all MPAs studied, contributing 55%-88% of total plastic. Site-specific rankings of the top 5 land-based plastic sources revealed that sea surface kinematics control plastic drift.

References

Sep 2, 2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Chris WilcoxBritta Denise Hardesty
Sep 15, 2015·Global Change Biology·Qamar A SchuylerBritta Denise Hardesty
Jan 18, 2016·Marine Pollution Bulletin·S LiubartsevaS Creti
Sep 12, 2017·Marine Pollution Bulletin·Manca Kovač ViršekMonika Peterlin
Oct 17, 2017·Marine Pollution Bulletin·Michael PreveniosGeorge Papatheodorou
Apr 24, 2018·Marine Pollution Bulletin·S LiubartsevaE Clementi

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