Particle uptake by filter-feeding macrofoulers from the Mar Grande of Taranto (Mediterranean Sea, Italy): potential as microplastic pollution bioremediators.

Microplastics (MPs) are a serious threat to the marine environment affecting ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. There is a vast literature about the uptake of MPs at different trophic levels, mainly focused on ecotoxicological effects in commercially relevant species. Little is still known about possible strategies to face MP pollution. Bioremediation is recently gaining attention in this framework. The clearance rate and particle retention of Sabella spallanzanii, Mytilus galloprovincialis, Phallusia mammillata, Paraleucilla magna at three MP concentrations (C1: 1.4 · 101 p/L; C2: 1.4 · 102 p/L; C3: 1.4 · 103 p/L) were investigated to test their potential as MP remover. Digestion protocol removed 98 % of tissues simplifying the MP quantification. P. magna clearance rate decreased with increasing concentration while P. mammillata showed no significant variations. S. spallanzanii and M. galloprovincialis instead exhibited the highest values of clearance rate. Yet, unlike mussels, S. spallanzanii can inhibit particle return to the surrounding water storing them in the tube, resulting to be the best candidate for bioremediation purposes.

Setting thresholds is not enough: Beach litter as indicator of poor environmental status in the southern Adriatic Sea.

This study deals with the issue of beach litter pollution in the context of the Descriptor 10 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive Good Environmental Status of EU waters and Ecological objective 10, Common indicator 22 of IMAP. Analyses of the amount, distribution and categorization of beach litter were conducted on nine beaches during 108 surveys covering the area of 206.620 m2 in Albania, Italy and Montenegro. Our findings showed that the level of beach litter pollution on south Adriatic beaches is significantly above the adopted threshold values, with a median item numbers of 327, 258 and 234 per 100 m of beach stretch for Albania, Italy and Montenegro, respectively. It can be concluded that, when it comes to beach litter pollution, GES has not been achieved. Given the defined baseline and threshold values at the EU level, the process of reducing the total amount of marine litter in southern Adriatic Sea will be very challenging and needs urgent and specific actions.

Optimization of a new multi-reagent procedure for quantitative mussel digestion in microplastic analysis.

Over the last few years, different digestion protocols have been proposed to extract microplastics from mussels, an important product from aquaculture and a relevant economic resource, always scrutinized as a potential pollutant concentrator. In this study, a full factorial experimental design technique has been employed to achieve efficiency in removing biological materials while maximizing the recoveries of five common microplastics (polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene and polyamide). A robust setpoint was calculated, 2.5% potassium hydroxide at 60 °C for 3 h with 5% hydrogen peroxide and 2.7% of methanol, permitting the quantitative digestion of mussel tissues and recovery of microplastics. These experimental conditions were successfully used to digest whole mussels bought from a local market, which possess high levels of microplastic contamination (41 items/g dry weight). The results highlight the importance of optimizing protocols to develop robust, easy to use and cheap quantitative approaches for analysing microplastic accumulation in edible organisms.