The Mediterranean Sea has been described as one of the most affected areas by marine litter in the world. Although microplastics and their effects have been investigated in this area, most of the currently available studies have been limited to the northwestern part of the basin. This study constitutes a first attempt to determine the abundance, characteristics and composition of microplastics in near surface waters of the Gulf of Gabes (southern Mediterranean Sea, Tunisia). Samples were collected using a 200 μm-mesh size trawl net along two transects. The study revealed an average concentration of 63,739 items/km² where fragments and films were the most frequent microplastics. Polyethylene, reformulated polyethylene and polypropylene were the most abundant plastics identified among the samples (86–100%). The influence of hydrodynamics on microplastics in the Gulf of Gabes was investigated through the use of a Lagrangian tracking model to simulate the dispersion of particles in water. Modelling results seem to be in agreement with the reported distribution and characteristics of microplastics in this area.

地中海被世界上海洋垃圾描述为受影响最严重的地区之一。尽管已在该地区研究了微塑料及其作用，但目前大多数可用的研究仅限于盆地的西北部。这项研究是确定加贝斯湾（突尼斯南部地中海）近地表水中微塑料含量，特征和组成的首次尝试。使用200μm筛网尺寸的拖网沿两个样条收集样品。研究发现平均浓度为63,739项/ km ²碎片和薄膜是最常见的微塑料。在样品中，聚乙烯，重新配制的聚乙烯和聚丙烯是最丰富的塑料（86-100％）。通过使用拉格朗日跟踪模型来模拟流体在水中的分散，研究了流体动力学对加布斯湾微塑料的影响。建模结果似乎与该地区报道的微塑料分布和特征一致。