Anthropogenic and plastic litter on the coasts of the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea

Description

Beach pollution by marine litter, especially plastic products and their fragments, is influenced by intensive recreational use, coastal development, fishing and shipping. These plastic products have exceptionally long degradation times in the natural marine environment. Monitoring surveys show the presence of different types of litter on beaches. Anthropogenic litter, which includes natural litter such as wood chips, cones, wood fragments, amber, feathers, seaweed, glass, ceramics, charcoal and plastic litter. Monitoring was carried out at five city and village beaches on the Baltic coast of Kaliningrad: (1) Yantarny beach, (2) Baltiysk beach, (3) Baltic (Vistula) Spit beach, (4) Zelenogradsk beach - the root of the Curonian Spit, (5) Kurshskaya Spit National Park beach near the village of Morskoye. The assessment was carried out according to the widely used OSPAR (OSPAR, 2010) method (data are presented in tables). The OSPAR method defines nine parent categories (plastic, rubber, textile, paper, wood, metal, glass, sanitary and medical products) and 110 specific item categories, with the possibility of recording unlisted items. Frequently encountered (>30 times) unrecorded items are added to the item list for future rounds of measurements. Samples found were visually inspected and categorised by the researcher (anthropogenic and plastic). All litter found was weighed on the beach and transported to the laboratory (except for large items). In the laboratory, the plastic litter was dried and weighed again (the results of the weighing are given in the tables). Tables structure: Аnthropogenic items- number of pieces of non-plastic litter (metal, ceramic, glass, etc.) including those of natural origin (wood, amber, ets); S - area of the part of the beach where monitoring was carried out; Anthropogenic items/m2- the number of samples found in relation to the area of the beach where the monitoring was carried out; Weight of anthropogenic litter, g- weight of dry anthropogenic litter; Anthropogenic litter, gDw/m2- litter dry weight divided by the area of the beach surveyed; Weight of plastic litter, g- weight of dry plastic litter; Plastic litter, gDw/m2- litter dry dry plastic litter to the area of the surveyed beach; Plastic items- number of pieces of plastic litter; Plasticitems/m2- number of items found in relation to the area of the beach surveyed.

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The assessment was carried out according to the widely used OSPAR (OSPAR, 2010) method.

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