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Turkish Journal of Zoology

Abstract

Increasing plastic pollution has become a critical environmental issue, leading to  challenges in management. Specifically, microplastics (MPs) are of particular concern  because they can persist in aquatic ecosystems and adversely affect marine  organisms. The objective of this study was to assess the occurrence of MPs  in the soft tissues of Patella caerulea (Linnaeus, 1758) collected from the Mersin  Viranşehir coastal area. As no specimens were found in the supralittoral zone, the  decision was taken to conduct sampling only in the mediolittoral and infralittoral  zones. The total sampling area was 24 m2 divided into three 4-m2 plots in each zone.  A total of 80 individuals were collected. The mean (SE) MP concentration in  the soft tissues of P. caerulea was 17.05 MPs/g wet weight (ww) (16.84) in the  mediolittoral zone and 10.88 MPs/g ww (8.02) in the infralittoral zone. MPs identified  in soft tissues ranged from 0.1 to 5 mm. The mean abundance of MPs per gram of  soft tissue varied by morphological type: fragments (31.85 MPs/g ww (6.39)) were the  most dominant, followed by granules (10.64 MPs/g ww (1.97)), filaments (8.59  MPs/g ww (1.15)), and films (4.46 MPs/g ww (0.91)). Polymer composition analysis  showed that MPs were primarily composed of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP),  polystyrene (PS), polyester/ polyethylene terephthalate (PES/PET), nylon-6,  and cellulose. Notably, the proportions of PE, PP, and PS were higher in the  infralittoral zone compared to the mediolittoral zone. These findings highlight the  extent of MP contamination in P. caerulea and the influence of coastal zonation on  MP accumulation in marine gastropods.

Author ORCID Identifier

EZGİ DEĞİRMENCİ: 0000-0002-3648-6028

NURAY ÇİFTÇİ: 0000-0002-2925-0332

SEDAT GÜNDOĞDU: 0000-0002-4415-2837

DENİZ AYAS: 0000-0001-6762-6284

DOI

10.55730/1300-0179.3246

Keywords

Patella caerulea, sof‍t tissue, microplastic, mediolittoral, infralittoral, northeastern Mediterranean

First Page

14

Last Page

22

Publisher

The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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