ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1611650
Spatial patterns and characterisation of marine litter from sandy beaches facing an urban area and a Marine Protected Area
Provisionally accepted
Laura Corbari1*
Ana Milivojevic2,3Ana Maria Botero Angel3,4Mar Bosch-Belmar3,4
Manuel Berlino4,5Fulvio Capodici1,4Giuseppe Ciraolo1,4
Gianluca Sarà3,4
M. Cristina Mangano4,5- 1Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
- 2Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DISAT) University of Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1 - 20126, Milan, Italy
- 3Laboratorio di Ecologia, Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare (DiSTeM), University of Palermo, Ed. 16, 90128, Palermo, Sicily, Italy
- 4NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy
- 5Department of Integrative Marine Ecology (EMI), Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Sicily Marine Centre, Lungomare Cristoforo Colombo (complesso Roosevelt), Palermo, Sicily, Italy
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Marine litter represents a globally recognized issue affecting the environment with salient negative effects on both human health and socio-economic activities. Mainly composed by plastic items, marine litter can be dispersed in the ocean by the surface currents, sink on the seafloor and/or beaching in the coastal area. The monitoring, quantification and characterization of beach litter can represent a time-consuming activity, it can be performed by applying rigorous available monitoring protocols (both European and international) and supported by citizen science. Here we present and discuss the main outcomes from an in-situ monitoring campaigns covering sandy beaches encompassing an urban area and a Marine Protected Area. Both macro- and meso-litter have been quantified and identified (e.g. material, size, shape and colour). The high quantity and the heterogeneity of occurred items (reported as from the Joint List of Litter Categories for Macrolitter Monitoring) was high especially on areas characterized by highest permanence of users (e.g. refreshment areas, shops and restaurants). Free-access beaches showed highest density of macro-litter items compared to beach where entrance was regulated by three level of subscriptions. Artificial polymers/plastics (specifically plastic caps/Lids) dominated the scene followed by paper/cardboard (in fragments). A database has been built allowing to highlighting hotspot and patterns of occurrence useful to inform local management measures, admonishing the local municipalities to improve waste management.
Keywords: Beach litter, Macroplastics, Mesoplastics, central Mediterranean Sea, beach cleaning
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Corbari, Milivojevic, Botero Angel, Bosch-Belmar, Berlino, Capodici, Ciraolo, Sarà and Mangano. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laura Corbari, Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy
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