Impact of Microplastic Pollution on Biota in the Turkish Territorial Waters

Abstract

Plastics are high demand raw material with applications in many industries due to their low costs and easily processable structures. Increasing plastic production in line with the high demand and inadequate waste management of plastic waste gives rise to accumulation of these wastes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It has been reported that microscopic size plastics (microplastics) (<5 mm) which were eighter produced intentionally in response to sectoral needs or formed by the degradation of large plastic wastes as a consequence of physical, chemical and biological environmental factors cause significant problems in aquatic ecosystems. The aim of present study is to reveal the impact of microplastic pollution on biota in the Turkish coastline by evaluation of a data set, created by expanding the scope our biota exposure data with the available information gathered from scientific database platforms (Web of Science, Scopus, and TR index). With the final dataset, we were able to evaluate the impact of the pollution on 13422 individuals belonging to 54 species at a regional sea system level. Results of the study highlights impact of microplastic pollution on biota through the Turkish coastline and the reveals the data gaps and hot pollution spots in regional level. This information has the ability to guide researchers in the process of determining areal coverage of their future studies.