PLOCEAN · Plastic impacts on Ocean's biogeochemical cycles in the Anthropocene
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-07-05 → 2025-07-05
- EU contribution
- €264,669
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Plastic impacts on Ocean's biogeochemical cycles in the Anthropocene
PLOCEAN project aims at understanding the behavior plastic debris in the marine environment and their interaction with microbes and the natural biogeochemical cycling of elements, like carbon, marine aggregates and marine snow. This helps tracking sources and vertical residence of plastic in the water column that may influence microplastics buoyancy and fate, as well as how plastic can in turn interact with organic aggregates formation and carbon content. PLOCEAN addresses important knowledge gaps for research priorities in the study of plastics in the marine environment: 1) plastic fluxes from land to sea and within the marine biotic and abiotic compartments; 2) biogeochemical processes driving plastic bioavailability for marine organisms; and 3) the role of plastic as a new component of marine biogeochemical cycles. These themes are important for society because plastic is being considered as a planarity boundary threat but its wider interaction with marine life and the functioning of the oceans has still many uncertainties. The research objectives addressed are the following: 1) Understanding plastic fluxes from land to sea and within the marine biotic and abiotic compartment (WP1: Land-to-Sea Fluxes) 2) Understanding the environmental factors that determine temporal microbial selection of plastic surfaces (WP2: Aggregation) 3) Biogeochemical processes driving plastic bioavailability for marine organisms and understanding the role of plastic as a new component of the marine biogeochemical cycle (WP3: Distribution in the Water Column).
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The long-term accumulation of plastic in our ocean has become a global challenge. Microplastics, and particularly those < 300 µm, are ubiquitous and persistent and get entangled in microbial organic matrices that change particles’ buoyancy, aging, and determine their bioavailability in the water for being ingested. Microplastics’ interaction with microorganisms may also change microbial communities distribution and activity, possibly perturbing biogeochemical cycles at the basis of marine ecosystems and food webs. Through primary production the ocean absorbs and converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into organic matter, further channelled to higher trophic levels by its incorporation into bacterial biomass, and thus provides up to 70% of the oxygen for life. PLOCEAN focuses on how microplastics interact with the microbial mechanisms of production and transformation of organic matter to address important research priorities: 1) plastic sources and distribution in marine environments; 2) biogeochemical processes driving plastics’ aging, transport and bioavailability affecting fish stocks and human consumption; and 3) the role of plastic in marine biogeochemical cycles that may determine changes in carbon turnover, nutrients cycling and primary productivity in coastal areas. PLOCEAN will combine field observations and laboratory studies applying the latest developments in research techniques: polymer characterization and metagenomics to study plastic-specific microbial communities, microbial contribution to particles' aging and interaction with organic matrices. PLOCEAN will also devote an important aspect to outreach and citizen science. The multi-disciplinary approach and the research questions addressed will contribute to fill knowledge gaps in the current understanding of environmental plastic fluxes, distribution, as well as impacts on biotic and abiotic marine compartments that affect biogeochemical processes behind marine ecosystem’s food webs and functioning.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR OZEANFORSCHUNG KIEL (GEOMAR) · KielCoordinatorGermany
- FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES · Boca RatonUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union