Beaches of the Azores archipelago as transitory repositories for small plastic fragments floating in the North-East Atlantic.

Plastic pollution is among the most pervasive stressors currently influencing the marine environment and affecting even the most remote areas. To date, there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of the major pathways and fate of plastic debris in the oceans. Here we show that oceanic insular environments are important transitory repositories of small plastic items floating in the open ocean.

Spatio-temporal variability of beached macro-litter on remote islands of the North Atlantic.

Marine litter has been identified as one of the major environmental problems that oceans are currently facing. Worldwide efforts are being made to reduce the input of litter into the oceans, and projects aimed at monitoring their quantities are key to evaluate their success. This study, provide baseline information on the quantities of marine litter found on 42 beaches spread throughout the nine islands of the Azores archipelago, North Atlantic Ocean.