CHALLENGE-2: Marine debris

Throughout the CHALLENGE-2 campaign, several samples of marine litter have been collected from two of the main compartments: water and sediments.
For water, surface water was sampled using a Manta trawl (trawl net) to assess marine microdebris. At the same time, to the extent possible, 30-minute visual transects were carried out from the BIO Hespérides bridge to detect superficial macrodebris. Also, for a better understanding of the distribution of marine microlitter in the water column, 80 L of water at 50 m obtained by Niskin bottles were filtered at the respective sampling points.
For the sediments, beaches have been sampled in search of macro- and micro-debris by means of visual transects and obtaining fine sediments in different areas and points of the same beach. Also, during the phase with the BIO Hespérides, sediments have been collected from the seabed at different depths using a multicorer. The first 5 centimeters of 3 corers, per sampling point, have been preserved for microdebris analysis.
In relation to the macrodebris samples from the beaches, fragments have been preserved at -80ºC and with Glutaraldehyde for the study of the associated microbiota, also known as "plastisphere".