Marine litter in the Croatian part of the middle Adriatic Sea: Simultaneous assessment of floating and seabed macro and micro litter abundance and composition

Abstract In this study, abundance, distribution and composition of floating and seabed macro and micro litter in the Central Adriatic Sea were assessed. Floating macro litter observations were made. Floating and seabed micro litter were sampled with manta net and Van Veen grab, respectively. Micro litter particles visually found under the microscope were chemically analyzed with Fourier Transform Infrared microscope. Average calculated concentrations of floating macro (175 items/km 2 ), floating micro (127 thousand particles/km 2 ) and seabed micro litter (36 particles/100 g dry weight) show similar values as other published studies from the Mediterranean Sea. A statistically significant ( p