Quantification and distribution of marine microdebris in the surface waters of Livingston Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica).

• Published in: Marine Pollution Bulletin
• Main Authors: Monràs-Riera, Pere, Angulo-Preckler, Carlos, Avila, Conxita
• Other Authors: Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address:, Red Sea Research Center (RSRC), Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, and Biodiversity Research Institute (IrBIO), Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier BV 2023
• Subjects: FTIR; Pollution; Anthropogenic Impact; Microplastics; Microfibres; Antarctic; Livingston Island; South Shetland Islands; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Antarctica; SCAR; Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10754/694394; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115516

Microdebris are ubiquitous and the Southern Ocean is no exception. Despite the recent increment in Antarctic studies assessing this threat, there is still scarce information available. Here, we quantified the microdebris in surface water, and their distribution within two bays of Livingston Island (South Shetlands, Antarctica). The two studied bays included one with human presence and one pristine, barely visited. Microdebris pollution was found in all samples with a mean concentration of 0.264 ± 0.185 items/m3. Fibres (82.19 %) were the main item, with polyester (61.67 %) as the main plastic polymer, followed by nylon (29.54 %). No differences in the distribution pattern were observed, with microdebris being homogeneously distributed along the two bays. Our results suggest that nearshore waters of Livingston Island are prone to the accumulation and retention of microdebris. The composition of the microdebris also points to Antarctic local activities as principal contamination contributors. The authors thank all members of the BLUEBIO-1 Antarctic cruise (2018–2019) and the personnel of the Livingston Research station for their help during the fieldwork. They further thank the technicians of the CCiT-UB for their help with the FTIR analyses. The authors also acknowledge the Norwegian Polar Institute's Quantarctica package. This work was supported by the BLUEBIO (CTM2016-78901/ANT) and CHALLENGE (PID2019-107979RB-100) projects from the Ministry of Science (Spain). It also was supported by a PREDOCS-UB fellowship (2022) from the University of Barcelona. This study is part of the ‘Integrated Science to Inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean Conservation’ (Ant-ICON) research programme of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).