PLANET · understanding PLAstic pollutioN effects on the biogeochemical cycle of ElemenTs
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-11-01 → 2023-10-31
- EU contribution
- €202,159
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
understanding PLAstic pollutioN effects on the biogeochemical cycle of ElemenTs
Plastic and microplastics (fragments with dimension below 5 mm) are ubiquitous in the environment: 9 to 23 million metric tons of plastics reach the oceans every year. Freshwater environments are observed to be major recipients of plastic pollution. However, some repercussions of plastic pollution on the environment are still yet to be understood. An overlooked implication of plastic pollution is the potential interaction with nutrients and (trace) elements in water. Several experimental setups highlighted the potential of plastic to adsorb metals in laboratory conditions, and the process of plastic alterations in the environment, the so-called aging processes seems to play a pivotal role. Freshwater environments hold fundamental ecosystem functions for the biogeochemical cycling of elements. If plastic may affect this process, the environmental implications may be worrying. PLANET project aims at understanding the effects of plastic aging and biofouling in defining its interaction with (trace) elements. This aim will be reached through 4 specific objectives: 1 - Selection and characterization of reference materials and their alteration/ageing, focusing on freshwaters and sediments; 2 - Analysis of adsorption and desorption of different elements; 3 - Modelling the interaction between plastic polymers and elements to quantitatively predict this interaction and projecting implications across ecosystem relevant scales; 4 - Experimental assessment of the relevance of the ions/metals - plastic interaction in microcosms.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Plastic and microplastic pollution is a global environmental and societal concern. While focus has been placed on assessing the direct impacts on biota, indirect ecological effects are unexplored. Following very recent (and unexpected) laboratory evidences of a considerable binding between metals and altered plastics, I hypothesize that such an interaction can be amplified in environmental conditions due to mechanical, UV and biological degradations during plastic ageing. Plastic can change the budget and cycling of nutrients, micronutrients and toxic metals in different environments (agricultural soils, sediments). If this holds, the implications for the ecosystem might be far-reaching. The mechanisms underpinning ions/metals- plastic interaction are still mostly unexplored.Through PLANET action, I will: i) conduct artificial plastic ageing experiment on selected polymers to create testing materials for following work; ii) characterize the alterations of plastic surface physicochemical properties, iii) run sorption tests with ions and metals in batch experiments under varying pH, salinity, redox potential to disentangle mechanisms, nature and energy of this interaction; iv) build a mathematical frame describing this interaction and its implications for ions/metals distribution in the environment; v) assess model predictions in sediments/water column microcosms to enable inference for ecological effects at different scales.I will work at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, a top research centre for plastic pollution analysis and environmental modelling. The host owns advanced equipment and laboratory to enable the project. The supervisor is committed to provide training on several core and soft skills and give access to his scientific and stakeholder networks. This will largely benefit my career development. I will exploit these contacts for communication and dissemination towards concrete impacts in the scientific, policy and industrial sector.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- NORSK INSTITUTT FOR VANNFORSKNING STI · OsloCoordinatorNorway
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union