engleski

Beached marine plastic litter as a carrier of abiotic and biotic phases in the coastal Adriatic Sea

In recent decades, plastic pollution has become a global environmental problem. Its ubiquitous presence in the oceans poses a threat to different organisms, including humans. Plastic particles can adsorb various contaminants, including potentially toxic trace metals (TM), as well as pathogenic bacteria and serve as a vector for their transport. This is especially observed in a closed environment such as the Adriatic Sea, which is loaded with marine plastic litter (MPL) [1]. MPL and sediment samples were collected in the intertidal and supratidal zones of three Croatian beaches: Sakarun (Dugi Otok Island, middle Adriatic Sea) and Uska and Zace coves on Lastovo Island (southern Adriatic Sea). Sediment are sands of highly carbonaceous composition, particularly on the Sakarun beach. The visually extracted (ZEISS loupe) plastic particles were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. TM and bacteria were studied on MPL and in sediment. TM amounts (Zn, Cd, Pb, Cu, Ni, Co) were analyzed by voltammetry, while microbial assay was performed on marine and TCBS agar and identified by MALDI TOF MS. Metal amounts on plastic surfaces were within the range of those found in sediment and were comparable to published data [2], while polystyrene in particular showed significantly increased metal amounts. The bacterial communities detected on the MPL had a significantly different taxonomic composition than the sediment samples. The plastic colonizing bacteria belonged to the genera Bacillus, Exiguobacterium, and Psychrobacter, while the highest percentage of sediment isolates belonged to the genera Vibrio. This interdisciplinary study aims to deepen the current knowledge on the interaction of adsorbed TM and bacteria on MPL, which has not yet been thoroughly investigated, using a multi-method approach. This research has been fully supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project lP-2019-04-5832.

Marine plastics ; Trace metals ; Bacteria ; Adriatic Sea

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