FreshwaterMPs · The environmental fate and effects of microplastics in freshwater ecosystems
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-04-01 → 2017-05-31
- EU contribution
- €159,461
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The environmental fate and effects of microplastics in freshwater ecosystems
EU member states are currently working towards the realisation of environmental goals specified in the Water Framework Directive, which aims to protect both human and ecosystem health. Microplastics (MPs) are pollutants of emerging concern and are formed primarily when plastic waste degrades in the environment. The impacts of MPs on freshwater biota are not known, however, they may present a potentially persistent and ecotoxicological stressors. Accordingly, the goal of this project is to assess the environmental degradation of plastics and the arising risk of MPs in freshwater habitats. To achieve this, a detailed investigation of MP environmental persistence will be carried out. This will provide environmental degradation characteristics for different polymers. This will be combined with laboratory studies to assess relevant sub-lethal endpoints such as reproduction, fitness, inflammation, and oxidative stress. As MPs are known to accumulate co-occurring organic pollutants, the toxicity of virgin MPs will be compared to MPs conditioned with relevant freshwater pollutants. This work will build towards a sophisticated state-of-the-art mesocosm study that will evaluate both MP fate and impacts in model ecosystems. An environmental risk assessment of MPs will inform our ability to achieve conservation objectives taking into account MPs as emerging pollutants. The merit of this project is that protection goals may be better accommodated in policy and management through the generation of so far unavailable data on MP persistence and environmental toxicity. Taken together, the freshwaterMPs will generate so far unavailable data sets to assess for the first time the environmental impacts of freshwater MPs. Thus, the outcomes will highly relevant for academia, politics, stakeholders, and society.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
EU member states are currently working towards the realisation of environmental goals specified in the Water Framework Directive (WFD), which aims to protect both human and ecosystem health. Microplastic particles (MPs) are emerging pollutants of increasing concern and are formed primarily when plastic waste degrades in the environment. The impacts of MPs on freshwater biota are not known, however, they may present a potentially persistent and ecotoxicological pollution problem. Accordingly, the goal of this project is to assess the environmental risk of MPs in freshwater habitats. To achieve this, a detailed investigation of MP environmental persistence will be carried out. This will provide environmental fate summaries for different polymer classes and enable the modelling of their degradation processes. This will be combined with laboratory studies to assess relevant sub-lethal endpoints such as reproduction, fitness, inflammation, and oxidative stress. As MPs are known to accumulate co-occurring organic pollutants, the toxicity of virgin MPs will be compared to MPs conditioned with relevant freshwater pollutants. This work will build towards a sophisticated state-of-the-art mesocosm study that will evaluate both MP fate and impacts in model ecosystems. The establishment of a novel framework for the environmental risk assessment of MPs will inform our ability to achieve conservation objectives taking into account MPs as emerging pollutants. The merit of this is that protection goals may be better accommodated in policy and management through the generation of so far unavailable data on MP persistence and environmental toxicity. Taken together, the project will generate so far unavailable data sets to assess for the first time the environmental impacts of freshwater MPs. Thus, the outcomes will highly relevant for academia, politics, stakeholders and society.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN · Frankfurt Am MainCoordinatorGermany
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/660306
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170701235853/https://www.environ-microplastic.org/
Data: CORDIS, © European Union