Impact of the marine litter pollution on the Mediterranean biodiversity: A risk assessment study with focus on the marine protected areas

In this paper a novel methodology to assess the risk of marine litter (ML) pollution in the Mediterranean Sea is implemented. In this approach, the hazard component is estimated using a state-of-the-art 3D modeling system, which allows the simulation of floating and sinking ML particles; the exposure component is defined from biodiversity estimates; and the vulnerability is related to ML ingestion rates of each species. The results show that the hot-spots for the ML risk concentrate in the coastal regions, and are mainly conditioned by the biodiversity in the region. A dedicated analysis on the marine protected areas shows that the risk therein is controlled by the proximity to ML sources and that their present-day protection levels are not effective in the case of ML pollution. Only a reduction of ML at the sources could reduce the impact of ML pollution in protected areas. •A novel methodology for risk assessment of marine litter pollution is developed.•The risk for neutral and positive buoyancy particles is estimated.•Methodology based on the impact on a large number of species.•Hotspots and conditioning factors are identified.•Focus on the impact on MPAs and effectiveness of their protection.