Background: In 1972, E. J. Carpenter and K. L. Smith were the first researchers to
alarm on the presence of plastic on the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. More
than two hundred million tonnes of plastics have been produced since the middle
of the last century. In the marine environment, microplastic portions (<5 mm)
proliferates, migrates and accumulates in natural habitats and settled from the ocean
surface to the seabed; the debris is also deposited on urban beaches and pristine
sediments. Currently, synthetic plastics such as low- and high-density polyethylene
(PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS) and
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are widely used and these plastics represent 90%
of the total world production. Microplastic pollution became widespread with
significant implications for ecosystems and organisms in a variety of forms.
Therefore study sources of microplastic in aquatic system and rolls of environment
conditions (such as sediment type, and energy) are vital to understand mechanism
of production and transportation.
Aim: During last decades concurrent with development oil-gas industries at the
Persian Gulf, human occupation widely developed through the coast area. As the
results, the source of plastic contamination at coastal area by wastewater and
recreational areas increased dramatically. The aim of this study is to evaluation
roles of urbanization at accumulation different type of plastic in coastal area. As
well as, we assessed impacts of environmental settings on physical destruction and
distribution different size of plastics (macro, meso and micro) at coastal area. For
this reasons, we employed sedimetological and chemical analysis proxies to shed
light on risk of microplastic contamination at coastal area.
Methodology: This study have been done at coastal zone of the Persian Gulf.
Sampling stations were designed according to the city development rates and
recreational areas. Therefore, 8 sampling station have