Microplastics in Surface Sediments along the Montenegrin Coast, Adriatic Sea: Types, Occurrence, and Distribution

Abstract

Considering that microplastics are widespread in the marine environment, in this study we evaluated the presence, identify distribution, abundance, shape type, and color of microplastics in surface sediment along the Montenegrin coast, on the Adriatic Sea. These preliminary results provide the first published record of microplastics found in the surface sediment of this area and highlight the importance of microplastics as a component of marine debris. We documented the presence of microplastics at all sampling locations. The identification of polymer types was performed using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, whereby the presence of three polymer types became evident: polypropylene (54.5%), polyethylene (9.7%), and acrylate copolymer (2.0%). Another 22.2% of particles were unidentified polymers, and the remaining 11.5% were non-synthetic materials. The most common shape type of microplastics was filaments (55.5%), followed by granules (26.3%), fragments (14.9%), and films (3.3%). The dominant colors of microplastics followed the order: blue > yellow > red > clear > black > green > blue-white > white. The average abundance of microplastics in all sampling locations was 609 pieces of microplastic/kg of dry sediment. Compared with other studies, the surface sediment of the Montenegrin coast is moderately to highly polluted with microplastics, depending on the examined location.