Microplastics in water surface and in the gastrointestinal tract of target marine organisms in Salento coastal seas (Italy, Southern Puglia).

Microplastic pollution is a major global environmental threat that has attracted increasing interest from the scientific community over the past decade. The semi-closed and highly urbanized Mediterranean Sea has been investigated since 2012, in several specific studies that have identified it as a target hotspot for microplastic contamination. The marine coastal zone of the Salento peninsula (Apulia, Italy) has peculiar geographical and hydrodynamic features, although there are few published data detailing the level of microplastics present in this area.