Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Characteristics of microplastics on two beaches affected by different land uses in Salamina Island in Saronikos Gulf, east Mediterranean P. Tziourrou a , P. Megalovasilis b , M. Tsounia c , H.K. Karapanagioti a, ⁎ a Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, Greece b Department of Geology, University of Patras, Greece c Department of Env. Technologists, Tech. Educ. Inst. of Ionian Islands, Greece ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Microplastics Plastic pellets Fragments Marine pollution Salamina Island Aegean Sea Greece ABSTRACT In the present study, samples were taken from two beaches of the Salamina Island. The results of microplastics characterization agree well with the predicted results based on the land uses both locally and from across the mainland. The first beach, Psili Ammos, is affected by increased anthropogenic and industrial activity. Based on the Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) - Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis mainly polyethylene (PE) fragments are observed than in the second beach, Kanakia. A high percentage of plastic pellets from industrial activity among fragments are found as well as the most fresh and the most degraded particles (based on the ester, keto, and vinyl indices). The second beach, Kanakia, has a high percentage of expanded polystyrene (EPS) particles suggesting an impact from fishing activities rather than industrial ones and all PE samples are found to be degraded suggesting that sources of non-fishing microplastic pollution are further away. 1. Introduction During the last 15 years, the attention to the issue of plastic pollu- tion (Bergmann et al., 2015) and additionally microplastic and nano- plastic pollution has been increased (Mendoza et al., 2018). Plastics and microplastics (particles with all dimensions lower than 5 mm) are a modern major environmental problem with international dimensions, which can also become a potential public health problem and a serious marine ecology potential threat (GESAMP, 2010; Fossi et al., 2018). Several studies have monitored the distribution of microplastics on beaches and a summary of these studies can be found in a recent study (Karkanorachaki et al., 2018) reporting temporal and spatial distribu- tion of beached microplastics from different beaches of Northern Crete. Another study has monitored the occurrence of plastic pellets throughout the beach sediments not only on the surface layers but also in-depth (Turra et al., 2014; Moreira et al., 2016; Matsuguma et al., 2017) as well as in Posidonia spheroids (Pietrelli et al., 2017). Only limited number of research studies have been published that monitor microplastic occurrence in beaches in Greece (Karapanagioti and Klontza, 2007; Kaberi et al., 2013; Karkanorachaki et al., 2018). These mainly focus on the visible fraction (> 0.3 mm) of microplastics and plastic pellets. Karapanagioti and Klontza (2007) identified the presence of plastic pellets on five beaches on Lesvos island. Most of them were polyethylene (PE) (61%), polypropylene (PP) (21%) and other (20%). They reported a mean plastic pellet weight equal to 0.03 g. Another study by the same group (Karapanagioti et al., 2011), recorded the presence of PE (54–90%) and PP (10–32%) plastic pellets in additional three beaches i.e. Loutropyrgos and Aegean Island both in Saronikos Gulf and Kato Achaia beach in the Gulf of Patras. Kaberi et al. (2013) sampled on six beaches of Kea Island in the Aegean Sea. They sampled for microplastics larger than 2 mm and smaller than 4 mm in diameter. The abundances that they found ranged from 0 to 1218 items per m 2 . Most microplastics and plastic pellets were made from PE and have undergone degradation. They identified the open sea as a source of microplastics for this island. Karkanorachaki et al. (2018) sampled on four beaches of the Crete Island in the South Aegean Sea. They sampled for visible fragments (smaller than 50 mm) and plastic pellets both in summer and winter. The abundances that they found on beach surfaces ranged from 4.6 to 170 items per m 2 for pellets and 2.6 to 125 items per m 2 for plastic fragments. They found much higher abundances at the subsurface (10 cm depth) and away from the water line. They also reported a mean plastic pellet weight equal to 0.02–0.03 g. In addition to monitoring, some studies have also studied the de- gradation of plastic materials in different marine environments (Ioakeimidis et al., 2016; Fotopoulou and Karapanagioti, 2012, 2015, 2018). Based on previous studies PET samples found on the beach https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110531 Received 11 May 2019; Received in revised form 17 August 2019; Accepted 18 August 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: pmegal@upatras.gr (P. Megalovasilis), karapanagioti@upatras.gr (H.K. Karapanagioti). Marine Pollution Bulletin 149 (2019) 110531 Available online 23 August 2019 0025-326X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T