RT journal article
T1 The role of seagrass meadows in the coastal trapping of litter.
A1 Navarrete Fernández, Teresa Magdalena
A1 Bermejo Lacida, Ricardo
A1 Hernández Carrero, Ignacio
A1 Deidun, A.
A1 Andreu-Cazenave, M.
A1 Cózar Cabañas, Andrés
A2 Biología
K1 Posidonia oceanica
K1 Mediterranean
K1 Microplastic
K1 Macro-litter
K1 Meadow
K1 Heavy rainfall
AB The accelerated discard and mismanagement of human-made products are resulting in the continued input of litter into the oceans. Models and field observations show how floating litter can accumulate in remote areas throughout the global ocean, but far less is known about the non-floating litter fraction. Seagrass meadows play an important role in the sediment and natural-debris dynamics, and likely also in the storage and processing of non-floating litter. In this work, non-floating litter was studied across six Posidonia oceanica meadows. Litter accumulated mainly around the landside edge of the meadow. The outer margin of the edge predominantly trapped macro-litter, whilst microplastics accumulated mainly along the inner margin. On average, macro-litter concentrations increased 3-fold after heavy rainfall. Retention of non-floating litter by coastal meadows facilitates the recurrent landward-seaward conveyance of the easily-transportable litter (mainly plastic items) and its fragmentation before it is buried or transferred to deeper areas.
PB PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
SN 1879-3363
YR 2022
FD 2022-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26202
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/26202
LA eng
NO This work was supported by Ministry of Economy and Competitivenessof the Government of Spain (‘MIDaS’ CTM2016-77106-R,2016); University of Cadiz (FPUCA2018, Support for university professorstraining for doctoral students at the University of Cadiz); CEIMARFoundation, C´adiz (Grant for international mobility of doctoralstudents for development of thesis in co-tutelage regime, 2019);‘Diputaci´on de C´adiz’ and SEA-EU (Beca Talento, 2021).
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 05-nov-2026