{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T13:02:09Z","timestamp":1784552529826,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784505600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>While existing AI-based microplastic monitoring studies predominantly rely on task-specific fine-tuned models, this study evaluates whether general-purpose multimodal foundation models with no spectroscopic instrumentation, minimal fine-tuning, and minimal computational resources can serve as accessible, low-cost tools for polymer classification under ecologically realistic field conditions with samples of plastic debris collected from coastal Sousse, Tunisia, a Mediterranean region experiencing anthropogenic pollution pressures. A curated dataset of 1080 high-resolution images was developed, representing six polymer groups (HDPE, LDPE, PA, PET, PP, PS, and mixed plastics). Fragments were imaged under standardized lighting conditions against natural sand backgrounds to preserve environmental realism. Each image was manually annotated using polygon-based boundaries to generate pixel-level segmentation masks and associated class labels, providing expert-validated ground truth for quantitative evaluation. Multimodal LLMs were evaluated using a composite scoring framework. Spatial accuracy was assessed using mean Intersection-over-Union (mIoU) against expert annotations, while polymer classification performance was measured using macro-averaged F1 scores across all categories. Model reliability was further evaluated through prompt stability testing and robustness analyses under controlled environmental perturbations designed to assess consistency across varying coastal imaging conditions. Results indicate that multimodal foundation models can distinguish plastic fragments from sand backgrounds, although performance varied across polymer classes and environmental perturbations. The weighted composite framework provides a structured approach for comparing model performance according to ecological monitoring objectives rather than computational metrics. These findings contribute to understanding the potential utility and current limitations of AI-based approaches for marine microplastic analysis and provide insights into coastal pollution patterns and ecosystem health within a One Health monitoring context.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph23070929","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T12:00:17Z","timestamp":1784548817000},"page":"929","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Can AI Reliably Identify Marine Microplastics in Wildlife? Assessing Multi-Modal Foundation Models for Polymer Classification with Minimal Training"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7271-0250","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gabriela","family":"Fernandez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7659-9361","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Domenico","family":"Vito","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-6878-1138","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siddharth","family":"Suresh-Babu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Dipsy","family":"Booth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sayali","family":"Sanjay Shelke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kawther","family":"Kaziz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Agrobiodiversity and Ecotoxicology, Higher Institute of Biotechnology Monastir, University of Monastir, Avenue Taher Hadded, Monastir 5000, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert","family":"Yabumoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Metabolism of Cities Living Lab, Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92185, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mohamed","family":"Banni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Agrobiodiversity and Ecotoxicology, Higher Institute of Biotechnology Monastir, University of Monastir, Avenue Taher Hadded, Monastir 5000, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"C\u00f3zar, A., Sanz-Mart\u00edn, M., Mart\u00ed, E., Gonz\u00e1lez-Gordillo, J.I., Ubeda, B., G\u00e1lvez, J.\u00c1., Irigoien, X., and Duarte, C.M. (2015). Plastic Accumulation in the Mediterranean Sea. PLoS ONE, 10.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0121762"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2331","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.1600715113","article-title":"Marine microplastics spell big problems for future generations","volume":"113","author":"Galloway","year":"2016","journal-title":"Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Destoumieux-Garz\u00f3n, D., Mavingui, P., Boetsch, G., Boissier, J., Darriet, F., Duboz, P., Fritsch, C., Giraudoux, P., Le Roux, F., and Morand, S. (2018). The One Health Concept: 10 Years Old and a Long Road Ahead. Front. Veter. Sci., 5.","DOI":"10.3389\/fvets.2018.00014"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3060","DOI":"10.1021\/es2031505","article-title":"Microplastics in the marine environment: A review of the methods used for identification and quantification","volume":"46","author":"Gutow","year":"2012","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"112347","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2021.112347","article-title":"Assessment of marine litter through remote sensing: Recent approaches and future goals","volume":"168","author":"Alomar","year":"2021","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"UNEP (2021). From Pollution to Solution: Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution, UNEP."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1596","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2011.05.030","article-title":"Microplastics in the marine environment","volume":"62","author":"Andrady","year":"2011","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"137561","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2020.137561","article-title":"Separation, characterization and identification of microplastics and nanoplastics in the environment","volume":"721","author":"Fu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"807","DOI":"10.1007\/s10311-020-00983-1","article-title":"Removal of microplastics from the environment: A review","volume":"18","author":"Padervand","year":"2020","journal-title":"Environ. Chem. Lett."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11319","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-018-1692-0","article-title":"A review of methods for measuring microplastics in aquatic environments","volume":"25","author":"Mai","year":"2018","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.watres.2018.05.019","article-title":"Quantification of microplastic mass and removal rates at wastewater treatment plants applying focal plane array (FPA)-based Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging","volume":"142","author":"Simon","year":"2018","journal-title":"Water Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-019-0912-1","article-title":"Deep learning and process understanding for data-driven Earth system science","volume":"566","author":"Reichstein","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Rolnick, D., Donti, P.L., Kaack, L.H., Kochanski, K., Lacoste, A., Sankaran, K., Ross, A.S., Milojevic-Dupont, N., Jaques, N., and Waldman-Brown, A. (2019). Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Bommasani, R., Hudson, D.A., Adeli, E., Altman, R., Arora, S., von Arx, S., Bernstein, M.S., Bohg, J., Bosselut, A., and Brunskill, E. (2021). On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"118136","DOI":"10.1016\/j.marpolbul.2025.118136","article-title":"Luhao He, Toward smart ocean monitoring: Real-time detection of marine litter using YOLOv12 in support of pollution mitigation","volume":"217","author":"Ma","year":"2025","journal-title":"Mar. Pollut. Bull."},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"(2026, February 21). Roboflow. Available online: https:\/\/roboflow.com."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kirillov, A., Mintun, E., Ravi, N., Mao, H., Rolland, C., Gustafson, L., Xiao, T., Whitehead, S., Berg, A.C., and Lo, W.-Y. (2023). Segment Anything. arXiv.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCV51070.2023.00371"},{"key":"ref_18","unstructured":"(2026, February 21). Cellpose\u2014Cellpose 4.0.2-15-g785d339 Documentation. Readthedocs.io. Available online: https:\/\/cellpose.readthedocs.io\/en\/latest\/index.html."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15566","DOI":"10.1039\/D3RA02169F","article-title":"Sources, distribution, and environmental effects of microplastics: A systematic review","volume":"13","author":"Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"RSC Adv."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"146094","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2021.146094","article-title":"A One health perspective of the impacts of microplastics on animals, human, and environmental health","volume":"777","author":"Prata","year":"2021","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.1186\/s44280-024-00049-9","article-title":"Relationship between climate change and environmental microplastics: A One Health vision for the platysphere health","volume":"2","author":"Conti","year":"2024","journal-title":"One Health Adv."}],"container-title":["International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1660-4601\/23\/7\/929\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T12:04:38Z","timestamp":1784549078000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1660-4601\/23\/7\/929"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]]},"references-count":21,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7]]}},"alternative-id":["ijerph23070929"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijerph23070929","relation":{},"ISSN":["1660-4601"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1660-4601","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]]}}}