Darwin's paradise contaminated by marine debris. Understanding their sources and accumulation dynamics. ☆ .

Autor: Sánchez-García N; Multidisciplinary Institute for Environmental Studies (MIES), Universidad de Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain; Department of Ecology, University of Alicante, PO Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain. Electronic address: nsg38@alu.ua.es., Sanz-Lázaro C; Multidisciplinary Institute for Environmental Studies (MIES), Universidad de Alicante, P.O. Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain; Department of Ecology, University of Alicante, PO Box 99, E-03080 Alicante, Spain. Electronic address: carsanz@ua.es.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) [Environ Pollut] 2023 May 01; Vol. 324, pp. 121310. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 16.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121310
Abstrakt: Plastic pollution is a global environmental threat. Remote and pristine islands are not safe from this threat. Here, we estimated beach macro- (>25 mm), meso- (5-25 mm) and microdebris (<5 mm) levels in Galapagos and studied the role of environmental variables determining their accumulation. The vast majority of beach macro- and mesodebris were plastic, while most microdebris were cellulosic. The levels of beach macro-, meso- and microplastics were notably high and comparable with exceptional levels reported in contaminated areas. Oceanic currents and the anthropic pressure of use of the beach were the main factors that determined the level of macro- and mesoplastics, as well as the diversity of items, with more types of items in the beaches facing the predominant current. Microplastic levels were mainly driven by the slope and, to some extent, the grain size of the sediment in the beach. The absence of relationship between the levels of large size debris and the level of microplastics suggests that secondary microplastics that accumulated in the beaches were previously fragmented before arriving to the beach. This differential influence of environmental factors in the accumulation of marine debris according to their size should be taken into account when developing strategies to mitigate plastic pollution. Additionally, this study reports high levels of marine debris reported in a remote and protected area such as Galapagos, which are comparable to areas with direct sources of marine debris. This is especially worrying for Galapagos since the sampled beaches are cleaned at least annually. This fact highlights the global dimension of this environmental threat that demands further extensive international commitment to conserve some of the last paradises on Earth.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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