H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2024

PLASTICSCAN · Combining CT Scanning and Spectroscopy to Characterise Micro-Plastics, a Growing Threat to Seabirds and other Marine Animals

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2022-02-01 → 2024-01-31
Финансиране от ЕС: 212 934 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Свойствата на микропластмасата, намерена в храносмилателната система на морски птици, се анализират чрез скенерно изследване и спектроскопия. Това помага да се разбере дали количеството, размерът или химичният състав на пластмасата влияят най-силно върху здравето на животните.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Combining CT Scanning and Spectroscopy to Characterise Micro-Plastics, a Growing Threat to Seabirds and other Marine Animals

Plastic waste is now a major source of pollution in the world’s oceans and is often eaten by wildlife that mistake plastic for food. The flesh-footed shearwater is one species of seabird that is particularly affected: foraging adults routinely feed bits of plastic to their chicks, which leads to poor health, stunted development, and even death. This project has focused on understanding exactly what about plastic is causing the most harm to shearwaters, is it simply the amount of plastic, or is it something about the size or shape, or what they are made of? To answer that question, we need a large quantity of plastics from the digestive tracts of several birds, we can then carefully record and analyse the various properties of those plastics and relate those properties to measurements of how healthy each bird was at the time. I set out to analyse 1000 pieces of ingested plastic from flesh-footed shearwaters, and I have collected data on over 1400 plastics. Although the analysis is not finished yet, I should be able to identify which properties of plastic (if any) are having a significant effect on seabird health. Another challenge we face when monitoring plastic pollution and its impact on wildlife is making sure we can accurately and reliably measure the physical and chemical properties of plastics. As part of this project, I set out to develop several methods for collecting data on the properties of plastics, including photography, micro-CT scanning, and spectroscopy. Some of these techniques are already well known and often used for studying plastic pollution but can be improved in reliability by applying machine learning and other automated data processing methods, while other methods I have developed are entirely new and represent a significant improvement over conventional, human-driven observations.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Plastic debris is now a major source of anthropogenic pollution with >5 trillion fragments of micro-plastic in the world's oceans, and can lead to deleterious and often fatal consequences when ingested by seabirds and other marine animals, including hormonal disruption, chemical toxicity, or obstruction of digestive tract. In this action we propose to develop a standard method for characterisation of plastic fragments in the environment, using a combination of micro-CT scanning and FTIR, Raman spectroscopy to measure both physical parameters (size, shape, surface area) and chemical properties (primary polymers, additives, etc.) of individual fragments. We intend to apply the developed methodology to an existing collection of >10,000 plastic fragments extracted from living and dead seabirds over 10 years, and identify which properties of ingested plastics are associated with the greatest negative impact on seabird physiology and health outcomes. Analysis of preserved seabirds from spirit collections will provide historical context for the onset and rise of plastic contamination in seabirds over recent decades. The effect of environmental aging on plastics will be investigated by laboratory studies of several industrial polymers that comprise a major fraction of marine plastic pollution, identifying the spectroscopic signature of photo-chemical degradation under ambient marine conditions and in the acidic environment of seabird stomachs. With the increasingly ubiquitous presence of plastic debris in the environment, it is more important than ever that we understand the precise mechanisms by which that debris negatively impacts marine life so that we may mitigate those effects.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM · LondonКоординаторОбединеното кралство