Plastic waste input from Guadalquivir River to the ocean

  1. Quintana Sepúlveda, Rocio 1
  2. González Fernández, Daniel 1
  3. Cózar Cabañas, Andrés 1
  4. Vilas Fernández, Cesar 2
  5. González Ortegón, Enrique 3
  6. Baldo Martínez, Francisco 4
  7. Morales Caselles, Carmen 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Cádiz
    info

    Universidad de Cádiz

    Cádiz, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04mxxkb11

  2. 2 Centro El Toruño, IFAPA, Puerto de Santa María, Spain
  3. 3 Instituto de Ciencias Marinas de Andalucía, CSIC, Puerto Real, Spain
  4. 4 Centro Oceanográfico de Cádiz, IEO, Cádiz, Spain
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Actas:
EGU General Assembly 2020 Conference Abstracts

Año de publicación: 2020

Páginas: 19268

Tipo: Aportación congreso

DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU2020-19268 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Resumen

Around 8 million tons of plastic waste are leaked from land into the ocean annually. One of the main pathways of plastic input into the ocean is rivers, but there is no comprehensive information about the amount and nature of litter transported. This study presents results of a monthly monitoring over a two years period in the estuary of Guadalquivir River, southern Spain. The samples, which consisted of passive hauls, were taken from a traditional glass eel fishing boat anchored with three nets working in parallel. The nets, with a mesh of 1 mm and an opening of 2.5 (width) × 3 (depth) metres, filtered around 60,000 m3 per sample. Our methodological approach allowed characterization of virtually all plastic sizes in river waters, comprising micro-, meso- and macroplastics. Plastic items were dominated by pieces of film (70% in number). Microplastics in the size interval from 2.5 to 4.0 mm represented half of the total identified items. Small fragments in Guadalquivir River comprised most of the plastic mass input to the sea. Our results support the relevance of fragmentation processes inland, and the role of rivers and estuaries as sources of microplastics to the ocean.