Surface Sea Water Monitoring of Micro- and Mesoplastics in a Northern Adriatic Coastal Area

One of the global issues widely debated in recent times are the presence and effects of microplastics in the marine environment. Their presence and abundance in every examined environment put all marine habitats at high risk, as the preeminent raw materials in present-day industrial manufacture are polymeric materials. The presented study describes the results acquired by the monitoring of surface sea water sampled from two transects in the coastal area near to the inlet of the Venice Lagoon (Italy). The purpose was to collect new data about the presence and relevance of plastics pollution in the area. Plastic particles collected with a 0.3-mm mesh size net (manta net) were rigorously chemically classified by using a multi-technique procedure (three different spectroscopic methods), differentiating them also by shape, dimension, colour, and spatial density. All collected data allowed the definition of specific subgroups of plastic micro-debris in this Northern Adriatic Area. The approach proposed in this study was effective for the management of massive data quantity gained from the characterization of microplastics collected and allowed to highlight existing differences among data obtained from diverse sampling campaigns. This protocol could be exploited for future studies in the Adriatic Sea and other marine areas.