Marine Litter in Transitional Water Ecosystems: State of The Art Review Based on a Bibliometric Analysis

Monia Renzi,Francesca Provenza,Cristina Munari,Valentina H Pauna,Michele Mistri

doi:10.3390/w12020612

Monia Renzi, Francesca Provenza + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020612

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Abstract

Transitional water ecosystems (TWEs), despite their ecological and economic importance, are largely affected by human pressures that could be responsible for significant inputs of litter in the marine environment. Plastic input in coastal ponds, lagoons, river deltas and estuaries, could be driven by a wide range of human activities such as agriculture, waste disposal, municipal and industrial wastewater effluents, aquaculture, fishing and touristic activities and urban impacts. However, it remains unknown what the impact of plastic input in these TWEs could have on natural capital and, therefore, the ability for an ecosystem to provide goods and services to human beings. Given the large interest with regards to the conservation of transitional water ecosystems and the clear exposure risk to plastic and microplastic pollution, this study aims to perform: (i) a bibliometric analyses on existing literature regarding the levels of marine litter in such environments; (ii) a selection among the available literature of homogeneous data; and (iii) statistical analyses to explore data variability. Results suggest that: (i) research on microplastics in these ecosystems did not begin to be published until 2013 for lagoons, 2014 for river mouths and 2019 for coastal ponds. The majority of articles published on studies of microplastics in lagoons did not occur until 2019; (ii) sediments represent the matrix on which sampling and extraction variability allow the statistical analyses on data reported by the literature; (iii) the Analysis of Similarities (ANOSIM) test two-way evidenced that the level of protection of marine and terrestrial areas produced similar values while the habitat type showed low significance in terms of its effect on microplastic levels, shape and size in sediments.

Highlights

The topic of microplastics was first presented in 1972 by Carpenter and Smith, the scientific research on the issue did not show significant growth until 2013 [1]
Recent literature shows different levels of microplastic particles in sediments according to habitat type [5,6] suggesting the need for improved exploration of factors affecting distribution, levels and chemical composition of microplastics in sediments of different transitional water ecosystems (TWEs) as these habitat types were clearly understudied with respect to other marine habitats [7]
The results obtained in this study showed the need to better explore marine litter levels and chemical composition in transitional ecosystems

Summary

Introduction

The topic of microplastics was first presented in 1972 by Carpenter and Smith, the scientific research on the issue did not show significant growth until 2013 [1]. Despite authors including Rayan, Galloway, and Kedzierski [2,3,4] continually expressing the need for integrated approaches in microplastic research, a recent study indicated that current studies remain largely focused on ecotoxicology or environmental chemistry [1]. This observation suggests that the impact of microplastics on ecological quality remains underweighted, making it difficult for stakeholders to adequately address the problem of microplastics through the ecosystem lens. Studies show that the production of marine table salt is affected by microplastic pollution in salt marshes, an example of TWEs [10,11,12,13,14,15]

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