IHCantabria analyzes the potential of estuarine vegetation Spartina maritima to retain floating plastic debris

The results of the experimental study, recently published in ‘Marine Pollution Bulletin’, analyze the capacity of this marsh vegetation to retain floating macro- and mesoplastics

Researchers from the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) have conducted an experimental study to analyze how marsh vegetation, in particular the species Spartina maritima, can contribute to the trapping of floating plastic debris in estuaries.

The results of the study, which have been recently published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, provide new knowledge about the physical processes that favor the retention of plastics in these transitional ecosystems, between rivers and oceans. The following IHCantabria researchers are co-authors of the scientific article: Paula Núñez Pérez, Laura Pérez García, Seyed Meysam Rezaee (who participated in part of the study, when he was linked as a predoctoral researcher at IHCantabria), Javier F. Bárcena and Andrés García Gómez.

The study referred to in the scientific article consisted of a series of laboratory experiments carried out in a hydraulic channel in IHCantabria. In these tests, typical marsh conditions were simulated – varying water levels, current and wind velocities -, three vegetation densities and nine different types of plastic debris in shape and size were analyzed.

As a result of these trials, an experimental database was developed and a preliminary expression was derived that relates the trapping efficiency of estuarine Spartina maritima vegetation , taking into account the shape and size of plastic debris, vegetation density and marsh currents.

The first author of the scientific article recently published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, Paula Núñez Pérez, emphasizes that this research “is framed within basic science, aimed at improving the understanding of the physical processes involved in the interaction between floating plastic waste and marsh vegetation”.

Although it is not a direct solution to the pollution problem, the advances achieved by IHCantabria’s research staff are essential to optimize predictive models of plastic waste transport, dispersion and accumulation and to support long-term environmental monitoring and management strategies.

The full content of the article published in Marine Pollution Bulletin can be accessed through the following link: “Experimental study of buoyant macro- and mesoplastic trapping by Spartina marítima“.

Plastic material considered in the study developed by researchers from IHCantabria