Titre :

Heavy rains control the floating macroplastic inputs into the sea from coastal Mediterranean rivers: A case study on the Têt River (NW Mediterranean Sea)

Auteur(s) :

Laverre, M. [Auteur]
Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens [CEFREM]
Kerhervé, P. [Auteur]
Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens [CEFREM]
Constant, M. [Auteur]
Laboratoire de Génie Civil et Géo-Environnement (LGCgE) - ULR 4515 [LGCgE]
Weiss, L. [Auteur]
Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale [LOPS]
Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales [LEGOS]
Charrière, B. [Auteur]
Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens [CEFREM]
Stetzler, M. [Auteur]
Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens [CEFREM]
González-Fernández, D. [Auteur]
Universidad de Cádiz = University of Cádiz [UCA]
Ludwig, Wolfgang [Auteur]
Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens [CEFREM]

Titre de la revue :

Science of the Total Environment

Pagination :

162733

Éditeur :

Elsevier

Date de publication :

2023

ISSN :

0048-9697

Discipline(s) HAL :

Planète et Univers [physics]/Sciences de la Terre

Résumé en anglais : [en]

This study focuses on the relevance of small watersheds in the macroplastic pollution of coastal environments. It aims to identify and quantify in terms of composition, number and mass, current riverine flows of floating ...
Lire la suite >This study focuses on the relevance of small watersheds in the macroplastic pollution of coastal environments. It aims to identify and quantify in terms of composition, number and mass, current riverine flows of floating macroplastics (>2.5 cm). Estimates are based on 66 visual monitoring of total litter over a 4-year-period (2016–2019) in a small coastal Mediterranean river, the Têt River (NW Mediterranean Sea). The plastic fraction represented 97 % of the observed litter, mainly cigarette butts (20.5 %), polystyrene fragments (18.8 %) and light packaging (16.3 %). The Tet River is characterized by frequent flash-flood events caused by heavy rain, that can induce a sudden rise of the water discharge. Such hydroclimatic forcing greatly influence macroplastic flows, both in terms of their average compositions and loads. We have estimated that 354,000 macroplastic items, corresponding to 0.65 tons, are discharged annually from the Tet River into the sea, and that 73 % of them are released during rain events (∼6 % of the year). The short observation distance from the water surface allowed to exhibit the great abundance of small litter (80 % of them were < 10 cm) and to evaluate to 1.8 g the average mass of floating plastics. Our results suggest that remediation actions must be taken on rainy days and target small litter in order to significantly limit macroplastic inputs from rivers to the sea. Moreover, the large share of cigarette butts in macrolitter inputs demonstrates that reducing ocean pollution cannot be achieved solely by improving waste management, but that changes in social behavior are also needed to stem waste production at the source.Lire moins >

Langue :

Anglais

Comité de lecture :

Oui

Audience :

Internationale

Vulgarisation :

Non

Collections :

• Laboratoire Génie Civil et géo-Environnement (LGCgE) - ULR 4515

Source :

Harvested from HAL

Date de dépôt :

2025-02-26T07:41:46Z