Search

Every day, about 200 million people go on Twitter to share their updates, talk about their interests, and connect with others from all over the world. Although not as popular as platforms like Facebook or Instagram with billions of users, Twitter still has a loyal audience of those that log in on a regular basis. Users use this platform to spread large amounts of information on very diverse topics. For this reason, Twitter is a good place to observe citizen concerns about environmental issues, including marine ones. To determine who, where, when, and for what reason marine plastic pollution is discussed, a data visualization dashboard called Twilitter has been developed. The analysis of 270 K tweets in 12 different languages posted during two years shows, among other things, that London is the city from where this subject is tweeted the most, that World Ocean Day is the most celebrated date and that activity increases after the dissemination of news about relevant or impacting scientific advances. Knowing these data can be vitally important in aligning the messages of the institutions responsible for environmental protection with the interests and way of expressing themselves of the general public. Also see: https://micro2022.sciencesconf.org/426756/document, In MICRO 2022, Online Atlas Edition: Plastic Pollution from MACRO to nano

Microplastics (MPs) have been frequently detected in samples from marine environments, however the vertical distribution of microplastics in the marine sediment is a less understood topic. In this work, the distribution of MPs from an intertidal sediment core of 50 cm was obtained. This distribution can give a view of the evolution of MPs concentrations over time as markers of the Anthropocene. Intertidal core sample was taken at the Ría de Vigo employing a PVC tubing. Core sample was maintained frozen until analysis. Analysis was performed by stereo microscopy after organic matter digestion, flotation and filtration. An average of 127.8 microplastics per kg of sediment was obtained, being fibers the most common type. The general trend of types and sizes was similar to previous studies in the area. A negative, but not significant trend, was observed between MP number and depth. Increments of microplastics in deeper sediments can be linked to changes in MPs input, sedimentation rates, natural or anthropogenic disturbance of sediments or extreme environmental episodes. No significant correlation was found between size or type of the MPs and depth. Also see: https://micro2022.sciencesconf.org/426750/document, In MICRO 2022, Online Atlas Edition: Plastic Pollution from MACRO to nano

This paper aims at developing a Historical Building Information Modelling methodology for supporting the diagnosis phase in historical constructions. To this end, the work evaluates the capacity of HBIM for integrating all the data generated during the pre-diagnosis and previous tests, including the data coming from point cloud clustering methods. According to this, we propose different families with low Level of Detail (LoD) and high Level of Information (LoI), including strategies for integrating the data of point cloud clustering methods. This proposal is applied to a case study in the Fortress of Almeida (Portugal), demonstrating the viability of the approach for the diagnosis of historical constructions. Future works will be focused on improving the integration of the 3D point clouds features by using convex-hull methods as well as integrating the results of clustering approaches based on artificial intelligence.

Microplastic litter is an omnipresent pollutant in marine systems across the globe; spread out from the water surface to benthic sediments. Furthermore, the current trend of microplastic accumulation in the marine environment will enable these particles to remain there for centuries to come, due to their persistence. Nevertheless, the impact of plastic particles on aquatic ecosystems is far from being understood. The consequences are estimated to be severe as microplastics can accumulate persistent organic pollutants from the environment and release toxic additives into the environment, which might pose a threat to marine organisms upon ingestion. Although microplastics are recognised as a contaminant of emerging concern in the environment, currently neither sampling, extraction, purification nor identification approaches are standardised, making microplastic studies difficult to compare, if at all, possible. Harmonization of protocols for determination of plastic particles is urgently needed in order to overcome this gap. The JPI-Oceans BASEMAN project is an interdisciplinary and international collaborative research project that aims to overcome this problem and to undertake a profound and detailed comparison and evaluation of all approaches from sampling to identification of microplastics. The two overall goals of the project are the “The validation and harmonisation of analytical methods” which is indispensable for the “Identification and quantification of MP”. The BASEMAN project will try to answer questions like the abundance and distribution of microplastics in the environment. For this purpose, tools and operational measures will be proposed so that they allow evaluation Member States’ compliance with existing and future monitoring requirements. This document regards microplastic sampling, processing and analysis for surface and water column seawater samples. Published Contributors to the report: Ana Filgueiras*, Jesus Gago*, Maria Luiza Pedrotti*, Giuseppe Suaria, Valentina Tirelli, José Andrade, João Frias*, Róisín Nash, Ian O’Connor, Clara Lopes, Miguel Caetano*, Joana Raimundo, Olga Carretero, Lucía Viñas, Joana Antunes, Filipa Bessa, Paula Sobral, Alenka Goruppi, Stefano Aliani, Luca Palazzo, Giuseppe Andrea de Lucia, Andrea Camedda, Soledad Muniategui, Gloria Grueiro, Veronica Fernandez, Gunnar Gerdts. Refereed Current 14.1 TRL 8 Actual system completed and "mission qualified" through test and demonstration in an operational environment (ground or space) Standard Operating Procedure

Marine litter is a global problem causing harm to marine wildlife, coastal communities and maritime activities. It also embodies an emerging concern for human health and safety. The reduction of marine litter pollution poses a complex challenge for humankind, requiring adjustments in human behaviour as well as in the different phases of the life-cycle of products and across multiple economic sectors. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires European Member States to monitor marine litter and implement programmes of measures to reduce its occurrence. A crucial step in monitoring and effectively addressing marine litter is the identification of the origin and the pathways that lead to litter entering the marine environment. A given site or region can be subject to litter pollution from a number of sources, which can be local, regional or even distant, as litter can be transported to a specific area by ocean currents and wind drift. For this reason, pinpointing the origin of the different items that make up marine litter is a difficult task and will always have an inherent degree of associated uncertainty. Plastic food packaging recorded in the marine environment, for example, can consist of a diverse selection of items, which can be generated from a number of sources, which in turn can be sea-based or land-based and originate from near or distant regions. A wide variety of methods have been used over the years to determine the sources of marine litter, from simple counts of items believed to originate from a given source to more complex statistical methods. This report provides a brief overview of the main methods used and outlines one of the most promising approaches for determining sources – a Matrix Score Technique based on likelihoods, which considers the possibility that specific items originate from more than one source. Furthermore, it presents a series of other parameters that can be used to analyse data-sets, with regard to the use, origin and risk of items recorded in the marine or coastal environments. These can further support decision-making when considering preventive measures. Finally, recommendations to help the process of identification of sources are given, from the early stage of data collection and site characterization to bringing in the knowledge of local stakeholders to better determine where litter is coming from and what needs to be done to prevent it., JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resources

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires European Member States (MS) to develop strategies that should lead to programmes of measures that achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES) in European Seas. As an essential step reaching good environmental status, MS should establish monitoring programmes for assessment, enabling the state of the marine waters concerned to be evaluated on a regular basis. As a follow up to the Commission Decision on criteria and methodological standards on good environmental status (GES) of marine waters (Commission Decision 2010/477/EU), the Marine Directors requested the Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENV) in 2010 to establish a Technical Subgroup (TSG) under the Working Group on Good Environmental Status (WG GES) for further development of Descriptor 10 Marine Litter (TSG-ML). TSG-ML in 2011 focused on providing advise through the EU Report 25009 “Marine Litter – Technical Recommendations for the implementation of MSFD requirements”. Within that report the options and available tools for the monitoring of marine litter in the different environmental compartments have been identified. Member States have then requested a follow-up through an additional mandate. One scope of this work is to provide harmonized protocols for the monitoring of marine litter for the European Seas. The present document is the Monitoring Guidance for Marine Litter in European Seas (Draft Report) and provides MS with the recommendations and information needed to commence the monitoring required this aspect of MSFD. This draft report divided in 8 sections/chapters presents a general overview of approaches and strategies dealing with marine litter monitoring and provides protocols for the monitoring of specifically: beach litter, floating litter, seafloor litter, litter in biota, microlitter. It concludes by presenting an introduction to a Master List of all litter items for use in litter monitoring programmes in the European marine environment., JRC.H.1-Water Resources

Presentation done in the CleanAtlantic seminary on marine litter