Microplastic pollution in the Black Sea coast of Turkey

Plastic pollution is one of the most important pollution problems of nowadays, in all aquatic ecosystem. In this study, the presence, amount, types, and distribution of microplastics were investigated in the surface sediments of the transitional water systems of lakes and rivers located on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. As a result of the research, a total of 2532 microplastics were found. The lowest and highest amount of microplastics in the research stations were found 31.65±14.21-258.9±368.8 pieces.kg-1 wet weight sediment, 37.9±16-347.8±122 pieces.kg-1 dry weight sediment and 53±20-514.3±742 pieces.L-1 sediment. The most common type of microplastic was the fragments (52.4%), followed by fibers (26.1%), films (19.2%), foams (2.2%) and beads (0.1%). The dominant microplastic color was transparent with 51.7%, followed by white (13,3%) blue (9.8%), gray (6.6%), black (5.9%), green (3.9%), red (3.9%), yellow/orange (3%), pink/purple (1.4%) and multi-colored (0.5%). Size groups of microplastics were <0.25 mm: 29.9%, 0.25-0.5 mm: 30.3%, 0.5-1 mm: 19.8%, 1-2 mm: 12.4% and 2-5 mm: 7.6%. In this study, the presence of microplastics in the transitional water systems of lakes and rivers of the Black Sea was investigated in Turkey coast and all investigated sediment samples were encountered with microplastics.