Español

Abstract

During the last decade microplastics pollution in marine environments has become an important environmental concern and the focus of much research. In the ocean microplastic debris comes from the breakup of bigger plastic debris. The present study tries to analyze the accumulation of microplastics in twelve beaches of Tenerife (Canary Islands) by analyzing the sand surface along different transects established according to the tidal range. Our results showed that the Los Gigantes beach had the greatest abundance of microplastics, whereas La Tejita was the only beach that did not present microplastics. The microplastics that where found were primarily 1 mm fractions that accumulated on the lowest tide line. The microplastic weight registered never exceeded 0.408g; on most of the beaches, the weight was 0. These discoveries suggest that the quantitative prediction of microplastic arrival to our beaches is very complex due to the diversity of influencing factors. According to our results, we can say that Tenerife beaches have low amounts of microplastics pollutions.