Titolo | Plastisphere in action: evidence for an interaction between expanded polystyrene and dunal plants |
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Tipo di pubblicazione | Articolo su Rivista peer-reviewed |
Anno di Pubblicazione | 2017 |
Autori | Poeta, G., Fanelli G., Pietrelli L., Acosta A.T.R., and Battisti C. |
Rivista | Environmental Science and Pollution Research |
Volume | 24 |
Paginazione | 11856-11859 |
ISSN | 09441344 |
Parole chiave | analysis, Animalia, Anthemis maritima, Beach, Biodiversity, dune, ecological impact, ecosystem, environmental management, Environmental Pollutants, fishery, grass, growth, Italy, Phragmites australis, plant community, plastic, Poaceae, pollutant, polymer, polystyrene derivative, Polystyrenes, Spartina versicolor, Tyrrhenian Coast, vegetation dynamics, waste |
Abstract | Among the many threats that can be recorded on sandy beaches, plastic litter represents a serious problem for these complex and endangered ecosystems. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is increasingly abundant as a form of plastic litter in natural environments, particularly along shores and waterways. Nevertheless, despite the great number of scientific articles concerning the impact of litter on animal species, there are still no research focusing on the interaction between this type of beach litter and other biodiversity components. In this work, we reported the first evidence of interactions between EPS and living plants along a sandy beach of Tyrrhenian central Italy. We sampled 540 EPS items, mainly deriving from fishery activities (>75%). We obtained evidence for an interaction between EPS and plants: about 5% of items resulted perforated or have roots of three species (Phragmites australis, Spartina versicolor, Anthemis maritima). Apparently, we did not observed a relationship between plants and EPS items size. More research is needed to assess if the plant assemblage growing on EPS is random or if peculiar substrate exerts some sort of selection on the plant community. © 2017, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. |
Note | cited By 4 |
URL | https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85016121707&doi=10.1007%2fs11356-017-8887-7&partnerID=40&md5=1e09352a647076e6c3c63060ef1ebfdd |
DOI | 10.1007/s11356-017-8887-7 |
Citation Key | Poeta201711856 |