An overview on microplastic pollution in the Black Sea coastal waters of Türkiye

Abstract

Besides its strategic importance, the Black Sea is a unique basin in terms of biodiversity, fishing and natural resources for the countries on its coasts such as Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine, as well as for Turkiye. The total coastline of the Black Sea is 4.869 km, of which 3.456 km are the coasts of Ukraine (1.756 km, 36.1 %) and Turkey (1.700 km, 34.9 %). This unique marine basin is under intense pollution threat due to the discharge of freshwater, sediment and nutrients from the rivers of all surrounding countries, as well as numerous pollutants, including microplastics. Microplastics, which are among the emerging pollutants originating from terrestrial runoff, industrial discharge and marine activities, adversely affect the aquatic ecosystem and pose a risk to public health. Ingestion by marine organisms can lead to bioaccumulation and biodiversity reduction. This review critically assesses the presence of microplastics in water, sediments and marine organisms along the Black Sea coast of Turkiye. A total of 45 conducted studies were examined within this review, and 87 % of them were reported from the eastern Black Sea. The results revealed that MPs pollution is more intense in the eastern Black Sea and MP type, polymer and color were found to be dominant with fiber (57.8 %), PET (43.4 %) and white (50 %) respectively. However, being the largest closed sea in the world, the Black Sea is the discharge point of many pollutants from different countries, therefore it is very important to investigate the presence of MPs along the entire Black Sea coast in order to protect and maintain marine ecosystems, to establish the necessary legislation and protection strategies and to take measures to reduce the level of pollution.