Paint particle pollution in aquatic environments: Current advances and analytical challenges.

Paints, coatings and varnishes play a crucial role in various industries and daily applications, providing essential material protection and enhancing aesthetic characteristics. However, they sometimes present environmental challenges such as corrosion, wear, and biofouling which lead to economic losses and ecological harm. Paint particles (PPs), including antifouling/anticorrosive paint particles (APPs), originate from marine, industrial, and architectural activities, primarily due to paint leakage, wear, and removal, thus significantly contributing to marine pollution.

Proof of concept for a new sensor to monitor marine litter from space.

Worldwide, governments are implementing strategies to combat marine litter. However, their effectiveness is largely unknown because we lack tools to systematically monitor marine litter over broad spatio-temporal scales. Metre-sized aggregations of floating debris generated by sea-surface convergence lines have been reported as a reliable target for detection from satellites.

Regurgitated skua pellets containing the remains of South Atlantic seabirds can be used as biomonitors of small buoyant plastics at sea.

Using seabirds as bioindicators of marine plastic pollution requires an understanding of how the plastic retained in each species compares with that found in their environment. We show that brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitated pellets can be used to characterise plastics in four seabird taxa breeding in the central South Atlantic, even though skua pellets might underrepresent the smallest plastic items in their prey. Fregetta storm petrels ingested more thread-like plastics and white-faced storm petrels Pelagodroma marina more industrial pellets than broad-billed prions Pachyptila vittata and great shearwaters Ardenna gravis.

The interactions of plastic with tar and other petroleum derivatives in the marine environment: A general perspective.

Plastic and oil pollution are closely linked to our dependence on petroleum derivatives. Their excessive use and inefficiencies in their management, have led to negative impacts on marine ecosystems since their very introduction. Agglomerates of tar, plastic, paraffins, and other petrochemicals and oil derivatives with naturally occurring materials, are increasingly widespread in coastal environments, stalling as an iconic and readable sign of environmental degradation.

Plastitar in the Mediterranean Sea: New records and the first geochemical characterization of these novel formations.

A new geological formation consisting of plastic debris admixed to petroleum oil residue, termed "plastitar", has been recently described in the Canary Islands. Here, we report its widespread occurrence across the Mediterranean coast and new insights into its biogeochemical composition. Specifically, we found marked differences in the diagenetic stable indicator profiles, suggesting a heterogeneous seeps provenance.

Abundance and composition of small floating plastics in the eastern and southern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean.

We report the distribution of floating plastics in the eastern and southern sectors of the Atlantic Ocean based on 35 neuston net trawl samples collected during two research cruises in 2016 and 2017. Plastic particles (>200 μm) were found in 69% of net tows, with median densities of 1583 items·km and 5.1 g·km.

Proximity to coast and major rivers influence the density of floating microplastics and other litter in east African coastal waters.

Floating anthropogenic litter occurs in all ocean basins, yet little is known about their distribution and abundance in the coastal waters off east Africa. Neuston net and bulk water sampling shows that meso- and micro-litter (8567 ± 19,684 items∙km, 44 ± 195 g∙km) and microfibres (2.4 ± 2.

Floating marine litter detection algorithms and techniques using optical remote sensing data: A review.

Floating Marine Litter (FML) are mainly plastics or synthetic polymers that float on the sea surface after being deliberately discarded or unintentionally lost along beaches, rivers or marine environments. In recent years, much focus has been placed on locating, tracking and removing plastic items in both coastal areas and in the open ocean. The use of high-resolution multispectral satellite images for such purpose is very promising, since satellite images can systematically monitor much larger areas in comparison to the traditional in situ observations.

Soft Robots for Ocean Exploration and Offshore Operations: A Perspective.

The ocean and human activities related to the sea are under increasing pressure due to climate change, widespread pollution, and growth of the offshore energy sector. Data, in under-sampled regions of the ocean and in the offshore patches where the industrial expansion is taking place, are fundamental to manage successfully a sustainable development and to mitigate climate change. Existing technology cannot cope with the vast and harsh environments that need monitoring and sampling the most.

Microfibers in oceanic surface waters: A global characterization.

Microfibers are ubiquitous contaminants of emerging concern. Traditionally ascribed to the "microplastics" family, their widespread occurrence in the natural environment is commonly reported in plastic pollution studies, based on the assumption that fibers largely derive from wear and tear of synthetic textiles. By compiling a global dataset from 916 seawater samples collected in six ocean basins, we show that although synthetic polymers currently account for two-thirds of global fiber production, oceanic fibers are mainly composed of natural polymers.

Floating macro- and microplastics around the Southern Ocean: Results from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition.

While macroplastics have been washing up on Southern Ocean islands for decades and microplastics have been found in seabirds from the region since 1960, there are still relatively few quantitative data on the amount of plastic pollution, especially with regard to floating plastics, at high southern latitudes. We present a baseline estimate of the abundance of floating plastics around the Southern Ocean from a survey of floating macro-, meso- and microplastic pollution conducted during the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition in 2016/17. A total of 40 net trawls and 626 h of observation were performed during this survey.

Sampling microfibres at the sea surface: The effects of mesh size, sample volume and water depth.

Microfibres are one of the most ubiquitous particulate pollutants, occurring in all environmental compartments. They are often assumed to be microplastics, but include natural as well as synthetic textile fibres and are perhaps best treated as a separate class of pollutants given the challenges they pose in terms of identification and contamination. Microfibres have been largely ignored by traditional methods used to sample floating microplastics at sea, which use 300-500 μm mesh nets that are too coarse to sample most textile fibres.

Microplastic study reveals the presence of natural and synthetic fibres in the diet of King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) foraging from South Georgia.

Marine ecosystems are experiencing substantial disturbances due to climate change and overfishing, and plastic pollution is an additional growing threat. Microfibres are among the most pervasive pollutants in the marine environment, including in the Southern Ocean. However, evidence for microfibre contamination in the diet of top predators in the Southern Ocean is rare.

The Mediterranean Plastic Soup: synthetic polymers in Mediterranean surface waters.

The Mediterranean Sea has been recently proposed as one of the most impacted regions of the world with regards to microplastics, however the polymeric composition of these floating particles is still largely unknown. Here we present the results of a large-scale survey of neustonic micro- and meso-plastics floating in Mediterranean waters, providing the first extensive characterization of their chemical identity as well as detailed information on their abundance and geographical distribution. All particles >700 μm collected in our samples were identified through FT-IR analysis (n = 4050 particles), shedding for the first time light on the polymeric diversity of this emerging pollutant.

First observations on the abundance and composition of floating debris in the North-western Black Sea.

The occurrence of marine litter in the Black Sea region is poorly known and even less data have been reported on the abundance of floating debris. Here we present results from a ship-based visual survey carried out in the North-Western part of the Black Sea, providing the first preliminary data on the characteristics of floating debris in Romanian waters. High litter densities peaking to 135.

Biodiversity conservation: an example of a multidisciplinary approach to marine dispersal.

The general aim of this paper is to present a possible multidisciplinary approach to the problem of connectivity among marine protected areas (MPAs) describing some of the mechanisms and vectors that control the dispersal of propagules among spatially distributed marine communities of MPAs in the Southern Adriatic Sea. A joint approach is described that focuses on (a) measurements of surface water current and model data integrated with a dedicated software (LAVA, LAgrangian Variational Analysis), (b) measurements of rafting objects and their evaluation as an alternative way to species dispersal, and (c) a tool to automatically monitor propagules and plankton species in the water column. Studies on the dynamics of water currents demonstrated that the Gargano area has the potential to supply dispersal propagules to the Southern Adriatic both along the Italian coastline and offshore across the basin, thus providing important services to the dispersal processes and the connectivity routes among MPAs.

Floating debris in the Mediterranean Sea.

Results from the first large-scale survey of floating natural (NMD) and anthropogenic (AMD) debris (>2 cm) in the central and western part of the Mediterranean Sea are reported. Floating debris was found throughout the entire study area with densities ranging from 0 to 194.6 items/km(2) and mean abundances of 24.