An integrative assessment of the plastic debris load in the Mediterranean Sea

An integrative assessment of the plastic debris load in the Mediterranean Sea Maria Luiza Pedrotti, Fabien Lombard, Alberto Baudena, François Galgani, Amanda Elineau, Stephanie Petit, Maryvonne Henry, Romain Troublé, Gilles Reverdin, Enrico Ser-Giacomi, Mikaël Kedzierski, Emmanuel Boss, Gabriel Gorsky This manuscript contains the results of the Tara Mediterranean Expedition, which sampled surface plastics throughout the Mediterranean Sea. The advanced imaging methods (ZoosCan) and data processing (Zooprocess) used allowed us to undertake an integrative study of surface plastic pollution, analyzing and classifying more than 75,000 plastic debris. We also provided estimates of regional differences in floating plastic loads and plastic characteristics. Notably, a new Lagrangian diagnostic predicting the concentration of plastic debris allowed us to link observed plastic concentrations to terrestrial plastic sources encountered by the water parcel carrying them. The dataset presented here is related to the publication M.L. Pedrotti et al. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155958