Microplastic pollution around remote uninhabited coral reefs of Nansha Islands, South China Sea

Abstract Microplastic (MP) pollution is a growing environmental problem in the global oceans. However, there is relatively little evidence of the extent of MP pollution around remote islands, such as coral reefs, in the open ocean. In this study, we conducted a large-scale investigation of MP pollution in the surface waters around the remote uninhabited coral reefs of Nansha Islands in South China Sea. Microplastics were widespread in the surface waters with an average abundance of 0.0556 ± 0.0355 items/m3, although this varied among the coral reefs. The MPs were predominantly composed of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE), and > 70% of them were