Abstract
Anthropogenic plastic pollution is a global problem. In the marine environment, one of its less studied effects is the transport of attached biota, which might lead to introductions of non-native species in new areas or aid in habitat expansions of invasive species. The goal of the present work was to assess if the material composition of beached anthropogenic litter is indicative of the rafting fauna in a coastal area and could thus be used as a simple and cost-efficient tool for risk assessment in the future. Beached anthropogenic litter and attached biota along the 200 km coastline of Asturias, central Bay of Biscay, Spain, were analysed. The macrobiotic community attached to fouled litter items was identified using genetic barcoding combined with visual taxonomic analysis, and compared between hard plastics, foams, other plastics and non-plastic items. On the other hand, the material composition of beached litter was analysed in a standardized area on each beach. From these two datasets, the expected frequency of several rafting taxa was calculated for the coastal area and compared to the actually observed frequencies. The results showed that plastics were the most abundant type of beached litter. Litter accumulation was likely driven by coastal sources (industry, ports) and river/sewage inputs and transported by near-shore currents. Rafting vectors were almost exclusively made up of plastics and could mainly be attributed to fishing activity and leisure/ household. We identified a variety of rafting biota, including species of goose barnacles, acorn barnacles, bivalves, gastropods, polychaetes and bryozoan, and hydrozoan colonies attached to stranded litter. Several of these species were non-native and invasive, such as the giant Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) and the Australian barnacle (Austrominius modestus). The composition of attached fauna varied strongly between litter items of different materials. Plastics, except for foam, had a much more diverse attached community than non-plastic materials. The predicted frequency of several taxa attached to beached litter significantly correlated with the actually observed frequencies. Therefore we suggest that the composition of stranded litter on a beach or an area could allow for predictions about the corresponding attached biotic community, including invasive species.
Highlights
Since plastics have been made available to a broad spectrum of consumers after the Second World War, their global production has risen to 322×109 kg in 2015 [1]
Plastic production is concentrated in China, Europe, the USA, Canada and Mexico, plastics and recyclable plastic waste, which are not classified as hazardous [2], are exported internationally [1,3,4], posing a global threat to human health, interests, and ecosystems [2,5]
A similar range expansion might occur for invasive barnacles, such as Austrominius modestus
Summary
Since plastics have been made available to a broad spectrum of consumers after the Second World War, their global production has risen to 322×109 kg in 2015 [1]. Plastic production is concentrated in China, Europe, the USA, Canada and Mexico, plastics and recyclable plastic waste, which are not classified as hazardous [2], are exported internationally [1,3,4], posing a global threat to human health, interests, and ecosystems [2,5]. The marine environment is especially affected, as it receives direct pollution from sea-based activities, and land-based plastics [7,8,9]. Plastic pollution causes the death of a high number of marine animals, as well as severe damages to ecosystems and human health and interests, like tourism, fishing, or leisure activities at beaches [10,11,12,13]. Policy changes have been requested after increasing scientific evidence and public awareness about the pollution problem [14,15]
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