RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Arenas Blancas (El Hierro island), a new hotspot of plastic debris in the Canary Islands (Spain).
A1 Díaz Peña, Francisco Javier
A1 Hernández Sánchez, Cintia
A1 González Sálamo, Javier
A1 Fraile Nuez, Eugenio
A1 Hernández Borges, Javier
K1 Marine debris
K1 Microplastics
K1 Mesoplastics
K1 Macroplastics
K1 El Hierro
K1 Canary Islands
K1 Infrared spectroscopy
AB The present work has studied the incidence and type of micro (1–5 mm), meso (5–25 mm) and macroplastics (>25 mm) that have reached Arenas Blancas beach, located in the north coast of El Hierro island, in the Canary Islands (Spain), from October 2019 to May 2020 (13 sampling dates with 3 sampling points each). Taking into consideration the three studied plastic debris fractions (macro, meso and microplastics), a total of 9206 items were found, which had a total weight of 1169.7 g and a concentration of 891.3 ± 91.5 items/m2 (118.3 ± 17.8 g/m2 and 2.3 ± 0.4 g/L). Regarding their colour, most of them were transparent/white/clear, especially in the microplastic fraction in which they accounted for a 68% of the total. Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy of meso and microplastic fractions indicated that most of the particles were either polypropylene and polyethylene followed by polystyrene in a much lower amount. In general, the total amount of plastic debris that arrives to the beach by the persistent oceanic current pattern linked to the easternmostbranch of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre is comparable to those of the most contaminated beaches of the Canary Islands archipelago, suggesting that a new hotspot of plastic debris arrival has been found.
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/35966
UL http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/35966
LA en
NO https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112548
DS Repositorio institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
RD 15-jun-2024