Abstract
Major objectives were to provide a comprehensive dataset on beach macro-litter for parts of the southern Baltic Sea and to analyse if the methodology is fully applicable and a suitable monitoring method in the Baltic. We carried out a regular macro litter beach monitoring (OSPAR methodology, 4 time a year) on 35 beaches along the German and Lithuanian Baltic coast over 2–5 years. Additional experiments addressed the subjectivity of the field surveys and spatio-temporal variability on different scales. We observed no seasonality of the data and a monthly compared to a 3-monthly sampling resulted in 3 times higher annual item numbers. Along the Lithuanian coast, the average number of items per survey varied between 138 and 340 and along the German Baltic coast between 7 and 404, with a median value of 47. All data showed a very high spatio-temporal variability. Using the Matrix Scoring Technique we assessed beach litter sources. With 50% tourism and recreation was the most important source. 3D–transport simulations helped to explain the minor role of shipping as a source and, compared to the North Sea, the low numbers of items on German Baltic beaches. Floating litter had a short duration time in the western Baltic Sea and offshore drift dominated. Further, the common regular beach cleanings reduced the potential for local litter accumulation and translocation. We suggest a monitoring system on 14 Baltic beaches in Germany and 2 in Lithuania and provide cost calculations. The analysis of macro-litter in cormorant nesting material and the search for beached dead animals did not show any result. We can conclude that the macro-litter beach monitoring method is less suitable for Baltic beaches and should only serve as a complementary method in combination with others.
Highlights
The pollution of beaches with macro-litter, the size fraction above 2.5 cm, is well known and associated problems for the coastal and marine fauna are well documented for many regions world-wide: Litter abundancy in Monterey Bay, California, ranged from 0.03 to 17.1 items m−2 (Rosevelt et al 2013); on remote Alphonse Island, Seychelles, during 6 weeks a total of 4743 items were found on 1 km beach (Duhec et al 2015); on 10 beaches of the Turkish Western Black Sea, beach litter densities varied between 0.01 and 5.0 items m−2 (Topçu et al 2013); quantities of marine debris at 20 beaches in Korea were 481 (±268)/100 m per survey; on recreational beaches in Mumbai, India, even an average of 69 items/m2 has been observed (Jayasiri et al 2013)
The OSPAR monitoring guidelines are largely used in Europe and ensure that recent data is comparable: On the Galician coast, Spain, the average annual value of litter items at beaches were 1016 ± 633/100 m or 504/100 m per survey (Gago et al 2014); on four beaches in the south-eastern North Sea, mean abundances between 105 and 435 items/100 m per survey were found (Schulz et al 2015a); in the central Baltic (Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia) an average number of 237 litter items/100 m per survey has been found on urban beaches, compared to 76 litter items/100 m at rural beaches
The limited amount of suitable beaches, tourism/recreation as dominating litter source on all beaches increasing strong small-scale pollution gradients and a very high temporal and spatial variability of item abundances characterise the situation at the German Baltic coast
Summary
The pollution of beaches with macro-litter, the size fraction above 2.5 cm, is well known and associated problems for the coastal and marine fauna are well documented for many regions world-wide: Litter abundancy in Monterey Bay, California, ranged from 0.03 to 17.1 items m−2 (Rosevelt et al 2013); on remote Alphonse Island, Seychelles, during 6 weeks a total of 4743 items were found on 1 km beach (Duhec et al 2015); on 10 beaches of the Turkish Western Black Sea, beach litter densities varied between 0.01 and 5.0 items m−2 (Topçu et al 2013); quantities of marine debris at 20 beaches in Korea were 481 (±268)/100 m per survey; on recreational beaches in Mumbai, India, even an average of 69 items/m2 has been observed (Jayasiri et al 2013). The OSPAR monitoring guidelines are largely used in Europe and ensure that recent data is comparable: On the Galician coast, Spain, the average annual value of litter items at beaches were 1016 ± 633/100 m or 504/100 m per survey (Gago et al 2014); on four beaches in the south-eastern North Sea, mean abundances between 105 and 435 items/100 m per survey were found (Schulz et al 2015a); in the central Baltic (Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia) an average number of 237 litter items/100 m per survey has been found on urban beaches, compared to 76 litter items/100 m at rural beaches. In a preliminary study, Balčiūnas and Blažauskas (2014) collected between 138 and 340 items/100 m (average 222) on beaches in Lithuania
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