Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze Fisiche e Naturali https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-018-0740-5 MARINE LITTER: FROM ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY TO POTENTIAL RESOURCE Beach litter in Mediterranean coastal dunes: an insight on the Adriatic coast (central Italy) Maria Carla de Francesco 1  · Maria Laura Carranza 2  · Angela Stanisci 2 Received: 9 March 2018 / Accepted: 24 September 2018 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2018 Abstract Beach litter is an increasingly important threat, causing a drastic loss of natural biodiversity and the associated ecosystem services. Even if beach litter accumulation in oceanic coasts has been analyzed quite well, new research eforts are still necessary to better understand this phenomenon along the Mediterranean coasts. This work sets out to analyze the sources of beach litter, the type of material, and the distribution and accumulation trend along the sandy coasts of the Adriatic Sea in central Italy (Abruzzo and Molise Regions, Italy). In particular, we focus on the following questions: (i) Which are the most frequent beach litter items and materials on sandy coasts? (ii) How is beach litter distributed on the diferent coastal dune habitats along the sea–inland gradient? Data were collected and categorized during spring 2014–2015 following the OSPAR guidelines in belts parallel to the shoreline and in transects perpendicular to the shoreline. Before analyzing litter abundance by classes of material, source types, and foating capacity, the spatial trends of waste accumulation along the dune zonation was also explored. Most of litter elements are in plastic, followed by styrofoam with good foating capacity. Majority of the debris derive from food packaging, fshing and recreational activities. The distribution of litter along the sea–land eco-morphological gradient is heterogeneous. The unequal accumulation amounts of debris on the upper beach, embryodunes, mobile dunes and fxed dunes threaten natural EC habitats in diferent ways. Our results stress the need of specifc conservation and cleaning actions able to preserve the ecological value of EC coastal dune habitats. Keywords Litter characteristics · Debris accumulation trends · Coastal dune eco-morphological zonation · EC habitat · Conservation actions 1 Introduction Sandy coastal dunes are dynamic mosaics which host a remarkable ecological diversity (van der Maarel 2003; Acosta et al. 2009; Doody 2013). These systems comprise approximately three-quarters of the world’s shorelines (Bas- com 1980) and provide humans with important services (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005) such as coastal protection, water catchment and purifcation, maintenance of wildlife, carbon sequestration, and tourism, recreation and education (Doody 1997; Everard et al. 2010; Jones et al. 2011; Drius et al. 2016). Regardless of the numerous ben- efts provided by coastal dunes, they are among the most fragile and threatened ecosystems worldwide (Schlacher et al. 2007. Doody (2013). In particular, during the last dec- ades, the outbound tourism, the expansion of urban areas, the spread of agriculture and aforestation activities and the biological invasions have strongly shaped coastal landscapes (Hesp and Martinez 2007; Malavasi et al. 2013; Santoro et al. 2012; Carranza et al. 2018). Added to these, is the increasingly important threat of marine litter (Lippiatt et al. 2013; Galani et al. 2015). The marine litter, intended as per- sistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed, or abandoned in the marine and coastal environ- ment (CBD Technical Series 2012), has lately turned into a pollution problem in diferent places of the world (do Sul This paper is the peer-reviewed version of a contribution selected among those presented at the Conference on Marine Litter held at Accademia dei Lincei, Rome on December 1, 2017, organized jointly with ENEA and Forum Plinianum. * Maria Laura Carranza carranza@unimol.it 1 EnvixLab, Dep. Biosciences and Territory, University of Molise, 86039 Termoli, CB, Italy 2 EnviX-Lab, Department of Bioscience and Territory, University of Molise, Contrada Fonte Lappone, 86090 Pesche, IS, Italy