Natural and anthropogenic radionuclides, metals, organic matter, sediment grain size, mineral composition, and sediment sources were studied in marine sediment of Kaštela Bay up to a depth of 0.5 m. Deposition of man-modified material into the sea was evidenced in sediment mineral composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe atmospheric bulk depositional fluxes of Pb were measured at a station on the Adriatic coast, Croatia over 4 years period from March 2017 to December 2020. The monthly depositional fluxes followed oceanic deposition patterns with a lower flux between 0.0735 and 16.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMediterranean Sea is the sixth largest area of marine litter accumulation in the world, and plastic pollution is a growing problem in its Adriatic sub-basin. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the cultivable microbiota associated with plastic litter collected by commercial fishing trawlers in the south-eastern Adriatic Sea in comparison with microbiota in seawater and sediment. Plastic litter in the sea contains an autochthonous microbiota that is different from that of the surrounding seawater and sediment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe association and statistical correlation of anthropogenically important trace metals (TM) Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn and degraded marine microplastic (MP) extracted from the bulk debris samples at two locations from two marine systems, estuarine and coastal, in the Croatian Adriatic coastal area were assessed. The abundance of MP particles at both sites were primarily defined by local wave climate, with the open coastal site containing 9-fold more microplastic particles (>4 mm) as compared to the semi-closed estuarine, or twice as much considering bulk plastics. Generally, the higher abundance of adsorbed metal on MP were observed in the more anthropogenically influenced estuary than in the open coastal site and followed the order: polystyrene > polypropylene > low density polyethylene.
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