NANOMES – MEaSuring NANOplastics and their interactions in the Ocean
Lead Research Organisation:
NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
Abstract
With plastic waste found everywhere in the ocean, the global environmental and societal concern over this issue is severe. Yet, we are currently unable to fully assess and counteract plastic contamination and its impacts on marine ecosystems due to the lack of quantitative and qualitative understanding about the smallest and potentially most abundant and pervasive plastic fragments – nanoplastics (NPs; <10-6 m). NPs are expected to be the most harmful size class of plastic contaminants as they are able to penetrate biological cell walls and tissues, whilst also having very reactive surfaces which adsorb other pollutants. Although subject to much ongoing, mostly laboratory-based research, NPs remain notoriously difficult to study in real ocean settings as current analytical tools lack either adequate sensitivity or chemical specificity to detect and characterise individual NPs among large quantities of natural marine particles. We thus lack the fundamental knowledge and understanding about the magnitude and type of marine NP contamination, where and how it occurs, how it moves through the ocean and where it ends up, and what impacts it makes to the functioning of the marine ecosystems.
With this Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF), I propose a transformative, ambitious, inter-disciplinary combination of work that will 1) deliver unique capability to quantify and characterise NPs unambiguously in real ocean settings and at an unprecedented near-molecular resolution; 2) deliver new knowledge about the abundance, size distribution, mass, characteristics and pervasiveness of NP contamination on an ocean basin-scale using this breakthrough capability. This will exploit a unique combination of field sampling and an extensive archive of Atlantic samples, 3) provide new insights into behaviour and interactions and NPs with ocean biota and globally important biogeochemical cycles, their impacts, and implications for the fate of NPs in the marine environment; 4) deliver urgently needed environmental data that will significantly advance our capability to predict present and future distribution and fate of plastic contamination in the ocean, assess and mitigate their ecotoxicological risks, and develop evidence-based environmental guidelines and policies.
This FLF will thus enable researchers, policymakers, industries and society to battle the plastic issue in an evidence-based manner and work towards solutions and strategies for a productive, healthy and resilient Ocean and sustainable Blue Growth.
I will achieve NANOMES goals by assembling and leading a team of scientists, students and technical support, and collaborating with world-leading academic and industrial experts in nano-scale chemistry, material science, marine biogeochemistry, ocean biogeochemical modelling and anthropogenic pollution. I will also train and develop the next generation of researchers who, through this FLF, will acquire cross-disciplinary expertise and skills, as well as providing an inspiring trajectory for their future career development.
With this Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF), I propose a transformative, ambitious, inter-disciplinary combination of work that will 1) deliver unique capability to quantify and characterise NPs unambiguously in real ocean settings and at an unprecedented near-molecular resolution; 2) deliver new knowledge about the abundance, size distribution, mass, characteristics and pervasiveness of NP contamination on an ocean basin-scale using this breakthrough capability. This will exploit a unique combination of field sampling and an extensive archive of Atlantic samples, 3) provide new insights into behaviour and interactions and NPs with ocean biota and globally important biogeochemical cycles, their impacts, and implications for the fate of NPs in the marine environment; 4) deliver urgently needed environmental data that will significantly advance our capability to predict present and future distribution and fate of plastic contamination in the ocean, assess and mitigate their ecotoxicological risks, and develop evidence-based environmental guidelines and policies.
This FLF will thus enable researchers, policymakers, industries and society to battle the plastic issue in an evidence-based manner and work towards solutions and strategies for a productive, healthy and resilient Ocean and sustainable Blue Growth.
I will achieve NANOMES goals by assembling and leading a team of scientists, students and technical support, and collaborating with world-leading academic and industrial experts in nano-scale chemistry, material science, marine biogeochemistry, ocean biogeochemical modelling and anthropogenic pollution. I will also train and develop the next generation of researchers who, through this FLF, will acquire cross-disciplinary expertise and skills, as well as providing an inspiring trajectory for their future career development.