Abstract
The presence of microplastics in the sea is a global issue widely studied and discussed in the last years. The whole marine ecosystem is now considered at high risk because of their presence and abundance in every studied environment all over the world because polymeric materials commonly constitute the main raw materials in contemporary industrial production. The presented study reports the results obtained from surface seawater monitoring of two sampling transects in the coastal area close to the Venice Lagoon (Italy) inlet, investigated in order to get new information about the presence and relevance of plastic pollution. Plastic particles collected by means of a manta net (0.3-mm mesh size) have been characterized in detail by utilizing a multi-technique approach in order to discriminate them by typology, dimension, colour, spatial density and chemical composition. Such information permitted the individuation of subgroups (specific groups) of plastic micro-debris in this Northern Adriatic area.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Madatec srl (Pessano con Bornago, Italy) for its technical support.
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This study was funded by the “IPA ADRIATIC CBC PROGRAMME 2007–2013 Derelict Fishing Gear Management System in the Adriatic Region” Project Code STR/00010.
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D. Marchetto: conceptualization, data acquisition, data elaboration, writing and generation of figures and tables.
L. de Ferri: writing, text revision and generation of figures and tables.
A. Latella: Data acquisition.
G. Pojana: acquisition of funding, conceptualization and text revision.
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Marchetto, D., de Ferri, L., Latella, A. et al. Micro- and mesoplastics in sea surface water from a Northern Adriatic coastal area. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 37471–37497 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17874-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17874-9