The i-Plastic project assesses the impacts of micro- and nano-plastics in the tropical and temperate oceans

The projects, that started their work in the spring of 2020, had a joint kick-off meeting in which over 140 attendees took part virtually. The six new projects aim at conducting research on sources of microplastics, methods for identifying smaller micro- and (nano-) plastics and monitoring their circulation in marine systems and their effects thereon.

Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea and adverse consequences to marine life. According to estimates from Eunomia (2016) between 27—67 million tons of plastic could be found in the world’s ocean as of 2016. Microplastic particles are by far the largest quantity of plastic pollution in the ocean and are persistent environmental contaminants whose potential for physical harm and toxicity has been highlighted in various studies. However, knowledge and understanding about smaller microplastic particles (from 10 μm to even smaller particles - nanoparticles) is still limited.

The i-plastic project, conducted by Patrizia Ziveri and Michael Grelaud, assembles a multidisciplinary consortium of European and Brazilian experts from five institutes and four countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Brazil.

Together, they will assess the dispersion and impacts of micro- and nano-plastics in the tropical and temperate oceans, from the regional land-ocean interface to the open ocean.

They will quantify the seasonal transport and dispersion in three selected estuaries (hotspots of plastic sources) and adjacent coastal waters and shorelines under distinct flow and climate regimes (i.e., tropical and temperate systems).

In-situ monitoring will be performed in the selected system of the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The impacts on distinct commercially valuable species (as part of the human diet) from the target regions will be addressed through in-situ observations and laboratory experiments.

New approaches will be implemented to detect and characterize nanoplastics in environmental matrices (i.e.: water, short-term sediment trap, sediment and biota) and ascertain processes of macroplastic fragmentation. Finally, the data generated during the i-plastic project will be used to feed regional models for the dispersion of micro- and nano-plastics, which in turn will be used to elaborate a model of their dispersion at the Atlantic scale.

In this context, the project will provide missing knowledge concerning the fate of plastics in the ocean and the effects of smaller plastics on the ecosystems of different areas worldwide, by making projections to understand the impacts and dispersion of micro and nano-plastics in the next decades of the Anthropocene.