Floating Riverine Litter Flux to the White Sea: Seasonal Changes in Abundance and Composition

Arctic rivers bring litter from their basins to the sea, but accurate data for the Arctic do not exist yet. This study presents the first assessment of floating macro litter input (>2.5 cm) from the Northern Dvina and Onega rivers to the White Sea. The observations were performed based on the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) methodology and using the mobile application of the Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy). The results of observations from May 2021 to November 2021 show that 77% of floating objects were of natural origin (mainly leaves, wood and bird feathers). Of the particles of anthropogenic origin, 59.6% were represented by various types of plastics, 27.7% were processed wood, 8.5% paper/cardboard, 2.7% metal, 1.1% were rubber and