POLLUTION LEVEL
Nobody can tell nowadays how many microscopic wastes are floating on the Mediterranean sea. Once fragmented under the sun and abraded with sea water, plastic fragments pretty invisible to the naked eye can reach a similar size as plankton (see the central photograph above). The latter is the base of the food chain, and a main nutritional capital for marine ecosystems. Once mixed up with plankton, floating microplastics is likely to replace natural preys for predator organisms.
Thus Expedition MED wishes to quantify floatting microplastics on the surface which is one of the plankton compartments (neuston habitat).
