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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a global conservation and management tool to enhance the resilience of linked social-ecological systems with the aim of conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services for sustainable use. However, MPAs implemented worldwide include a large variety of zoning and management schemes from single to multiple-zoning and from no-take to multiple-use areas. The current IUCN categorisation of MPAs is based on management objectives which many times have a significant mismatch to regulations causing a strong uncertainty when evaluating global MPAs effectiveness. A novel global classification system for MPAs based on regulations of uses as an alternative or complementing the current IUCN system of categories is presented. Scores for uses weighted by their potential impact on biodiversity were built. Each zone within a MPA was scored and an MPA index integrates the zone scores. This system classifies MPAs as well as each MPA zone individually, is globally applicable and unambiguously discriminates the impacts of uses.

Plastic production pellets collected from beaches of south west England contain variable concentrations of trace metals (Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb) that, in some cases, exceed concentrations reported for local estuarine sediments. The rates and mechanisms by which metals associate with virgin and beached polyethylene pellets were studied by adding a cocktail of 5 mg L1 of trace metals to 10 g L1 pellet suspensions in filtered seawater. Kinetic profiles were modelled using a pseudo-first-order equation and yielded response times of less than about 100 h and equilibrium partition coefficients of up to about 225 ml g1 that were consistently higher for beached pellets than virgin pellets. Adsorption isotherms conformed to both the Langmuir and Freundlich equations and adsorption capacities were greater for beached pellets than for virgin pellets. Results suggest that plastics may represent an important vehicle for the transport of metals in the marine environment.

Plastic production pellets sampled from four beaches along a stretch of coastline (south Devon, SW England) and accompanying, loosely adhered and entrapped material removed ultrasonically have been analysed for major metals (Al, Fe, Mn) and trace metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, Ag, Cd, Co, Cr, Mo, Sb, Sn, U) following acid digestion. In most cases, metal concentrations in composite pellet samples from each site were less than but within an order of magnitude of corresponding concentrations in the pooled extraneous materials. However, normalisation of data with respect to Al revealed enrichment of Cd and Pb in plastic pellets at two sites. These observations are not wholly due to the association of pellets with fine material that is resistant to ultrasonication since new polyethylene pellets suspended in a harbour for 8 weeks accumulated metals from sea water through adsorption and precipitation. The environmental implications and potential applications of these findings are discussed.