In this study, the abundance, and characteristics of the microplastics on the southern coast of
the Black Sea were assessed. More than 70% of the detected microplastics were smaller
than 2.5 mm and mostly consisted of fibers and fragments. The average microplastic
abundance in the beach sediment and seawater were 64.06±8.95 particles/kg and
18.68±3.01 particles/m 3, respectively. The western coast of the study area (Marmara
region) was the most polluted area, and a spatially significant difference was determined in …

9 Abstract 10 Microplastics are synthetic polymers that are< 5 mm in size and ubiquitous in
the marine 11 environment. In our study, the abundance and characteristics of the
microplastics on the southern 12 coast of the Black Sea were assessed. Beach sediment
and coastal seawater samples collected from 13 23 stations were subjected to extraction,
digestion, and FTIR identification processes. Microplastics 14 were detected on every station
and sample. More than 70% of the detected microplastics were 15 smaller than 2.5 mm and …