Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Marine Debris Conference, Busan, Güney Kore, 18 - 24 Eylül 2022, ss.1-2
Coastal environments are one of the main accumulation areas of microplastic pellets. It is known that the distribution of microplastic pellets in coastal areas is generally associated with pellet sources located on land, port facilities, cities, and industrial areas. Therefore, the distance between coastal regions and microplastic pellet sources can be an important factor to consider when assessing and monitoring the environmental impacts. However, containers lost during the overseas transportation of pellets can also cause a significant amount of microplastic pellets to be found in pristine coastal environments. As a result, the direct or indirect exposure of coastal environments and related ecosystems to human impact causes significant pellet pollution of the entire marine ecosystem, especially the coasts. The contribution of pellets to the total amount of microplastics in coastal areas varies. Various researchers have reported different numbers for different regions.
The main objective of this study is to understand the occurrence, distribution, and characteristics of the beached microplastic pellets in the Iskenderun Bay NE Mediterranean Coast of Turkey during 2018 and 2019. The study was performed in May 2018 and November 2018 in 13 coastal areas on Iskenderun Bay. The beaches were divided vertically and horizontally into three transects to better evaluate microplastic pellet pollution in the area. Particular attention was paid to ensure that each transect corresponded to a different coastal zone (high strandline: midline; and backshore line). We also applied the Pellet Pollution Index (PPI) to the beaches to improve our understanding of beach pollution and make beach pollution caused by pellets easy to understand both for the scientific community and the general population.
The mean microplastic pellet concentrations were 11.34 ± 2.33 item/kg dry sediment for May and 5.84 ± 0.79 item/kg dry sediment for November. The mean weight of the individually weighted microplastic pellets is 0.025±0.0005 g (mean weight of a single nurdle). According to the sampling period, the average weight of the microplastic pellets was calculated as 0.14 ± 0.03 g/kg dry sediment in May 2018 and 0.42 ± 0.08 g/kg dry sediment in November 2018. Average microplastic pellets were calculated as 126.04 ± 54.08 items/m2 for May 2018 and 70.22 ± 18.24 items/m2 for November 2018. The mean size of the pellets was 3.82 ± 1.19 mm for May 2018 and 3.16 ± 1.92 mm for November 2018. The size range was 1.83–5.73 mm. Microplastic pellets were sampled from 111 m2 during May 2018 and 96 m2 in November 2018. An overall mean PPI for May 2018 was calculated as 1.13, meaning a moderate degree of microplastic pellets pollution, and 0.56 for November 2018, indicating a low degree of microplastic pellets pollution.
This study found that microplastic pellets are ubiquitous within Iskenderun Bay beach sediments.