Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Note Is the microplastic selective according to the habitat? Records in amphioxus sands, Mäerl bed habitats and Cymodocea nodosa habitats Monia Renzi a, ⁎ , Andrea Blašković a , Paolo Fastelli a , Massimiliano Marcelli a , Cristiana Guerranti a , Susanna Cannas a , Lorenzo Barone b , Francesca Massara c a Bioscience Research Center, Via Aurelia Vecchia, 32, 58015 Orbetello, GR, Italy b Poliservizi srl, Via di S. Andrea delle Fratte, 24, 00187 Roma, Italy c Terna Rete Italia, Viale Egidio Galbani, 70, 00156 Roma, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Plastic litter Microplastics Northern Adriatic Sea Marine strategy framework directive Amphioxus sands ABSTRACT This study estimated for the first time the total loads of plastic litter (macro- meso- and micro-plastics) in sediments of different habitat types from the Northern Adriatic Sea. Samples were collected in March 2016. The sampling sites were settled in shoreline, on the C. nodosa bottoms, Amphioxus sands, and Mäerl bed habitats. Microplastics items were present in all sampling site and ranging within 137-703 items/kg d.w. from Mäerl bed habitat to the shoreline. In C. nodosa bottoms 170 items/kg d.w. were found, while in Amphioxus sands were recorded on average 194 items/kg d.w. Due to the absence of statistical associations among litter levels and abundance of B. lanceolatum in the study area, this research present the needs to develop a new method and more research to for the evaluation of how much the interrelation between sensible habitats and microplastic exist. 1. Short note Plastic represent a well-known issue impacting different layers of marine water such the surface and the deep sea waters as well the coastal beaches from 70s (Carpenter and Smith Jr, 1972) and only re- cently the scientific community discovered much more worrisome as- pects related to marine ecosystems integrity and conservation and the occurrence of plastic pollution (Barnes et al., 2009). As consequence of poor plastics degradability, bed waste management and growing inputs exponentially increased the needs of the scientists for knowledge and potential associated risks (Eriksen et al., 2014; Sauria and Alani, 2014; Nairobi, 2014). The Marine Strategy Framework Directive in the 2008 (MSFD - Directive 2008/56/EC) introduced the “Marine Litter” within the eleven descriptors to define and targeting the “Good Environmental Status” by 2020 (Galgani et al., 2010; De Lucia et al., 2014), strategy with whom has begun a series of research and an which increased the awareness of the scientific community all over the world. Any effort to study and manage pollution and ecological associated problems re- quires as starting point, a good knowledge on levels, distributions and dynamics of the plastic litter in the marine ecosystems. A very large number of researches and studies has been made in the past few years and in spite of that, data on plastic litter levels in different ecosystem and environments are incomplete and lacking. To fill this knowledge gaps, researchers and scientists are focused to improve general knowledge and are developing a lot of methods for the isolation and the research on microplastics. As we know the plastic litter took over every branch of our lives and is present more than ever in the sediments (Nuelle et al., 2014) and food (De Witte et al., 2014). Prevails in the environment, digestive systems and tissues (Bockstiegel, 2010; Avio et al., 2015; Van Cauwenberghe and Janssen, 2014). A critical aspect is for sure the fact that microplastic could be a vessel for allochthonous microorganism diffusion in sensible marine ecosystems (Barnes, 2012; Zettler et al., 2013; Collignon et al., 2014) and spreads through the food web (Setala et al., 2014). The consequences of introducing micro-or- ganism into the organism may be different, affecting feeding, breathing and reproduction (Cole et al., 2014). The aim of this study was to define the plastic litter levels in sedi- ments from different marine ecosystems of the Northern Adriatic Sea and the four studied marine habitats. For the first time the research is based on different sites: shoreline, C. nodosa bottoms, Amphioxus sands, and the Mäerl bed habitat. The presence/absence of a statistical re- lationship between plastic litter, B. lanceolatum (Pallas, 1774; Cephalochordate) abundance and Mäerl bed habitats were also checked by Student's t-test. Mäerl bed habitats and Amphioxus sands (both in- cluded in the biocoenoses “coarse sands and fine gravels under the influence of bottom currents” (Pérès and Picard, 1964) represent key marine ecosystems of great ecological interest (MSFD, 2008; Rota et al., 2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.03.019 Received 2 February 2018; Received in revised form 10 March 2018; Accepted 12 March 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: monia.renzi@bsrc.it (M. Renzi). Marine Pollution Bulletin 130 (2018) 179–183 0025-326X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T