Collaborative Research: Terrestrial microplastic pollution: understudied sources, source tracking, and citizen science

合作研究：陆地微塑料污染：未充分研究的来源、来源追踪和公民科学

• 批准号: 1917614
• 负责人: Shannon Bartelt-Hunt
• 金额: $ 20.97万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1917614&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Terrestrial; microplastic; pollution

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters. Microplastics are found in aquatic and terrestrial environments across the globe. Past research has established that stormwater, wastewater effluent, and runoff from urban areas and agricultural fields can carry microplastics into rivers, lakes, and streams. However, the details of how microplastics move in the environment is largely unknown. The goal of this research is to address this gap in our knowledge by measuring plastics in urban, suburban, and rural areas. These results will determine the influence of land use on microplastics entering into aquatic systems in the US. Results from this study will be used to assess the impact of legislative bans on microplastics in consumer products. The research will be facilitated by using citizen science groups trained and engaged to measure plastic levels in water in their communities. The impact of the citizen science efforts will increase the scientific literacy of the engaged groups, and results will be disseminated to the public, stakeholders, and regulatory agencies tasked with managing microplastics wastes. Although research has shown that over 12.7 million metric tons of microplastic waste enters the ocean on an annual basis, the relative importance of microplastics from different terrestrial sources (e.g., land application of biosolids, urban stormwater) is poorly understood. A multipronged study of microplastic transport in the environment involving field surveys and controlled field studies will be performed to address this knowledge gap. The specific objectives are to quantify loading rates, particle morphology, and composition of microplastics for two under-reported terrestrial transport routes and evaluate microplastic source tracking techniques in freshwater across disparate geographies. To date, no study has evaluated source tracking consistently across geographies. To overcome these limitations of past research, polymer identification will be performed using various techniques including FT-IR and/or micro-FT-IR. The project team will leverage ongoing collaborations with citizen scientists to carry out the research. Scientifically defensible measurements of terrestrial and aquatic microplastics will be achieved through an extensive quality control program that includes the analysis of spiked and FT-IR evaluated samples. At the conclusion of this project, the project team will disseminate quantitative information to the scientific, stakeholder, and public communities on microplastics loading across diverse geographies that will allow assessment of the influence of microplastic usage bans and voluntary phase outs. This study represents one of the first to directly evaluate the flux of plastics from land application of biosolids and stormwater. Importantly, this work will advance science by evaluating source tracking techniques across geographies in freshwater systems, which has not been performed previously using consistent methods.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

微塑料是小于5毫米的塑料颗粒。微塑料存在于地球仪的水生和陆地环境中。过去的研究表明，雨水、废水和城市地区和农田的径流可以将微塑料带入河流、湖泊和溪流。然而，微塑料如何在环境中移动的细节在很大程度上是未知的。这项研究的目标是通过测量城市，郊区和农村地区的塑料来解决我们知识中的这一差距。这些结果将确定土地利用对进入美国水生系统的微塑料的影响。这项研究的结果将用于评估立法禁令对消费品中微塑料的影响。 这项研究将通过使用公民科学团体来促进，这些团体经过培训并参与测量其社区水中的塑料水平。公民科学工作的影响将提高参与群体的科学素养，并将结果传播给公众，利益相关者和负责管理微塑料废物的监管机构。 尽管研究表明，每年有超过1270万公吨的微塑料废物进入海洋，但来自不同陆地来源的微塑料的相对重要性（例如，生物固体的土地应用、城市雨水）的了解甚少。将对环境中的微塑料运输进行多管齐下的研究，包括实地调查和受控实地研究，以解决这一知识差距。具体目标是量化两条未被充分报道的陆地运输路线的微塑料的装载率、颗粒形态和组成，并评估不同地理区域淡水中的微塑料来源跟踪技术。 到目前为止，还没有一项研究对跨地域的源跟踪进行了一致性评估。 为了克服过去研究的这些局限性，聚合物鉴定将使用各种技术进行，包括FT-IR和/或micro-FT-IR。项目团队将利用与公民科学家正在进行的合作来开展研究。陆地和水生微塑料的科学可靠的测量将通过广泛的质量控制计划来实现，其中包括对加标样品和FT-IR评估样品的分析。在该项目结束时，项目团队将向科学界、利益相关者和公众社区传播有关不同地区微塑料负荷的定量信息，以评估微塑料使用禁令和自愿淘汰的影响。这项研究是第一个直接评估生物固体和雨水土地应用中塑料通量的研究。重要的是，这项工作将通过评估淡水系统中跨地理区域的源跟踪技术来推进科学，这在以前没有使用一致的方法进行过。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

项目成果

Higher concentrations of microplastics in runoff from biosolid-amended croplands than manure-amended croplands

• DOI: 10.1038/s43247-023-00691-y
• 发表时间: 2023-02-20
• 期刊: COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
• 影响因子: 7.9
• 作者: Beni, Nasrin Naderi;Karimifard, Shahab;Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon
• 通讯作者: Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon