Microlitter pollution in coastal sediments of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy: microplastics and fly-ash occurrence and distribution

This is the accepted manuscript of the paper "Microlitter pollution in coastal sediments of the northern Tyrrhenian Sea,
Italy: microplastics and fly-ash occurrence and distribution", published as final paper in "Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science 241 (2020) 106819

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106819

Marine litter is included in the eleven descriptors of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) necessary
for the assessment of the marine environmental status. In this work, we studied the abundance and typology of
microparticles extracted from coastal sediments in the northern Latium area, Tyrrhenian sea, Italy. Particles
having different shapes (fragments, microspheres, and filaments), size and color were recognized to belong to
two typologies, i.e. microplastics (MPs) and aluminum silicate microspheres (ASMs) interpreted as fly-ash produced
by fossil fuel combustion. MPs abundances were comparable with data from the literature related to the
same depositional contexts in the Mediterranean Sea and elsewhere, while ASMs contributed 32% to the total
average microlitter abundance in this coastal area. MPs and ASMs distribution could reflect the contributions of
the land-based sources and the hydrodynamic features of the study area.