Anthropogenic litter is ubiquitous throughout marine ecosystems, but its abundance and distribution are driven by complex interactions of distinct environmental factors and thus can be extremely heterogeneous. Here we compare the extent of anthropogenic litter pollution at a sheltered lagoon habitat and nearby open coast sites. Monthly surveys over a period of five months showed that both the types and sources of litter always differed significantly between lagoon and open coast sites. Pollution within the lagoon was mainly land-derived and was largely made up of construction materials (70% to 95%). At open coast sites, construction materials represented a minor portion of pollution (4% to 12%) while plastics were the most abundant (82% to 95%). We show that stranded anthropogenic litter in adjacent marine habitats can differ significantly and stress the importance of sampling at appropriate spatial scales to gain realistic insights into the sources of pollution.

人为垃圾在整个海洋生态系统中无处不在，但是其丰富性和分布是由不同环境因素的复杂相互作用驱动的，因此可能是非常异质的。在这里，我们比较了带棚泻湖栖息地和附近开放海岸地区人为乱扔垃圾的污染程度。在五个月的时间内进行的每月调查显示，泻湖和沿海开放地点的垃圾类型和来源总是存在显着差异。泻湖内的污染主要来自陆地，主要由建筑材料构成（70％至95％）。在开阔海岸地区，建筑材料占污染的比例很小（4％至12％），而塑料则最为丰富（82％至95％）。