Investigating the distribution and regional occurrence of anthropogenic litter in English Marine Protected Areas using 25 years of citizen-science beach clean data
Nelms, S; Eyles, L; Godley, B; et al.Richardson, P; Selley, H; Solandt, J-L; Witt, M
Date: 13 March 2020
Article
Journal
Environmental Pollution
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designated to enable the management of damaging activities
within a discrete spatial area, and can be effective at reducing the associated impacts, including
habitat loss and over-exploitation. Such sites, however, may be exposed to the potential impacts from
broader scale pressures, such as ...
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are designated to enable the management of damaging activities
within a discrete spatial area, and can be effective at reducing the associated impacts, including
habitat loss and over-exploitation. Such sites, however, may be exposed to the potential impacts from
broader scale pressures, such as anthropogenic litter, due to its diffuse nature and lack of constraint
by legislative and/or political boundaries. Plastic, a large component of litter, is of particular concern,
due to increasing evidence of its potential to cause ecological and socio-economic damage. The
presence of sensitive marine features may mean that some MPAs are at greater potential risk from
the impacts of plastic pollution than some non-protected sites. Understanding the abundance,
distribution and composition of litter along coastlines is important for designing and implementing
effective management strategies. Gathering such data, however, can be expensive and time37 consuming but litter survey programmes that enlist citizen scientists are often able to resolve many
of the logistical or financial constraints. Here, we examine data collected over 25-years (1994 – 2018),
by Marine Conservation Society volunteers, for spatial patterns in relation to the English MPA
network, with the aim of highlighting key sources of litter and identifying management priority areas.
We found that MPAs in southeast (Kent) and southwest (Cornwall and Devon) England have the
highest densities of shore-based litter. Plastic is the main material constituent and public littering the
most common identifiable source. Items attributed to fishing activities were most prevalent in
southwest MPAs and sewage related debris was highest in MPAs near large rivers and estuaries,
indicating localised accumulation. When comparing inside and outside of MPAs, we found no
difference in litter density, demonstrating the need for wider policy intervention at local, national and
international scales to reduce the amount of plastic pollution.
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