Plastic occurrence in Macaronesia: Three years of monitoring on forty-six beaches across nineteen islands in an Atlantic region

for macroplastics, with the Canary Islands being the archipelago with the highest concentrations. Fragments (83.3 %), with a predominance of white and colourless (62.9 %), and polyethylene and polypropylene as the main types of polymer, 81.2 % and 11.4 %, respectively, were the plastic particles mainly found. Monitoring of 28 previously unstudied beaches revealed the presence of 5 new hotspots of plastic arrival. Statistical analysis revealed that beaches with northwest to east orientations were receiving a higher concentration of plastic litter than the opposite orientations. However, in the central group of the Azores, a notable hotspot was found on a beach oriented toward the southwest. These spatial patterns clearly reflect the influence of prevailing ocean currents associated with the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, which plays a key role in transporting plastic debris throughout the region. These results may contribute to a better understanding of plastic transport phenomena in a vast oceanic region such as Macaronesia and provide a foundation for further studies in other areas.