Mistaking plastic for zooplankton: Risk assessment of plastic ingestion in the Mediterranean sea
2023
Fabri-Ruiz, S. | Baudena, A. | Moullec, F. | Lombard, F. | Irisson, J.-O. | Pedrotti, M.L. | Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV) ; Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV) ; Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Dynamique et durabilité des écosystèmes : de la source à l’océan (DECOD) ; Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE) | Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) | Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) ; Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche (M.E.N.E.S.R.)
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. Floating plastic debris is a pervasive pollutant in seas and oceans, affecting a wide range of animals. In particular, microplastics (<5 mm in size) increase the possibility that marine species consume plastic and enter the food chain. The present study investigates this potential mistake between plastic debris and zooplankton by calculating the plastic debris to zooplankton ratio over the whole Mediterranean Sea. To this aim, in situ data from the Tara Mediterranean Expedition are combined with environmental and Lagrangian diagnostics in a machine learning approach to produce spatially-explicit maps of plastic debris and zooplankton abundance. We then analyse the plastic to zooplankton ratio in regions with high abundances of pelagic fish. Two of the major hotspots of pelagic fish, located in the Gulf of Gabes and Cilician basin, were associated with high ratio values. Finally, we compare the plastic to zooplankton ratio values in the Pelagos Sanctuary, an important hotspot for marine mammals, with other Geographical Sub-Areas, and find that they were among the larger of the Western Mediterranean Sea. Our results indicate a high potential risk of contamina-tion of marine fauna by plastic and advocate for novel integrated modelling approaches which account for potential trophic transfer within the food chain.
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