H2020Индивидуална стипендия2022–2025

SCRAP · Plastic litter in macrophyte system: environmental fate and ecological implications

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

Период: 2022-09-01 → 2025-04-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 191 852 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Морските водорасли улавят пластмасови отпадъци, които или остават в утайките, или се разпространяват в хранителната верига. Това помага да се разбере как микропластмасата и химикалите от нея влияят върху здравето на водораслите и околната среда.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

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

Резултати накратко

Plastic litter in macrophyte system: environmental fate and ecological implications

Coastal macrophyte act as dynamic sinks and secondary sources of marine litter, yet managers have lacked quantitative data on the magnitude and consequences of this trapping process; our project therefore set out to (i) track the fate of plastics in seaweed beds, (ii) evaluate whether plastic particles and additive leachates impair algal physiology, and (iii) establish whether such stress propagates to higher-level ecosystem functions such as trophic transfer. Comprehensive field surveys combined with 1 km-resolution Lagrangian modelling revealed that within 30 days roughly 34 % of algal-associated plastics are re-exported to the pelagic food web while 51% are sequestered in adjacent sediments. Leachate bioassays showed hormetic growth stimulation but chlorophyll suppression at environmentally realistic concentrations. A derived EC50 for the ORAC (oxygen-radical absorbance capacity) endpoint was 5–10 µg L⁻¹ for TDCPP (one of the leachates tested). Multiple stressors experiment revealed that orgnaic pollutants such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons as the dominant driver of photosystem-II inhibition, whole microplastics and turbulence acting synergistically. The project developed a multi-endpoint macrophyte toxicity assay (growth, chlorophyll, ORAC) now constitute an early-warning toolkit already adopted by the host laboratory. Baseline surveys of nutrient stoichiometry, extracellular-enzyme activity and litter decomposition seeded five follow-on grant proposals that will scale the work to ecosystem level. Collectively, the project delivers the first empirical export–burial coefficients for seaweed-mediated plastic fluxes, validated bioassays for regulatory monitoring, and open-access SOPs and scripts that HELCOM and UNEP will consider to integrate into regional and global plastic-litter assessments, thereby enabling evidence-based nature-based solutions and reinforcing the EU zero-pollution agenda.

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

Цел на проекта

Plastic is an emerging environmental contaminant that attracts social, political, and scientific attention. However, the effect mechanisms and ecological conditions that promote the consequences of plastic littering remain elusive because of the single-species approach in ecotoxicological testing. To make regulatory decisions mitigating the problem, the potential impacts and vulnerable habitats must be identified. In aquatic ecosystems, macrophyte beds are often a templet habitat providing foraging grounds for pelagic and benthic food webs. These systems are also at the forefront of plastic littering, with high fragmentation and accumulation of microplastic. I propose to conduct a systematic study to understand the multiple interactions between the key components in a coastal habitat exposed to plastic littering. Using the keystone macroalgae species in the Baltic, Fucus vesiculosus, this project aims to evaluate the microplastic effect mechanisms that are related to the species interactions in seaweed beds, with a microbiome being the key component mediating these interactions as well as microplastic retention in the system. I will also investigate the potential of the macrophyte habitat as an entrance point for microplastic in the food web, with particular focus on the primary consumers with different feeding modes. To evaluate the ecosystem health posed by microplastics, the project will also examine effects of microplastic and their leachates on plant physiology, including its growth and metabolite production. Finally, I will evaluate the effects of microplastic exposure on the macrophyte templet functions, including energy transfer efficiency and heat wave resilience. This framework will provide an understanding of the pathways, fate and effects of plastic debris in macrophyte system as well as an approach that applies to other anthropogenic contaminants released into the environment as particulates.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITET · StockholmКоординаторШвеция