EAGER: Collaborative Research: Assessing the contribution of plastics to marine particulate organic carbon

就像生命和生命留下的天然有机物质一样，塑料是碳基的。在使用方面，塑料仍然是一种神奇的材料，促进了技术的进步。然而，一旦被丢弃，它们的耐用性会让塑料堆积起来。海洋表面是塑料堆积的一个地方。该项目将从公海收集样本，并测量天然有机碳和塑料碳浓度。研究小组假设，在海洋表面的某些地方，塑料碳的含量将与天然有机碳一样多，甚至更多。如果该团队是正确的，这将改变他们和其他海洋科学家对海洋样本中观察到的碳特征的解释，并表明我们的表层海洋已经被塑料污染从根本上改变了。塑料是碳基聚合物，是碳循环的一个新兴组成部分。海洋塑料和有机碳的数据是由不同的科学团体用不同的方法收集的。比较这两个群落的数据表明，塑料碳现在可能与海洋表面的生物成因OC浓度相当。在这个探索性研究（EAGER）项目的早期概念资助中，该团队将进行一项跨学科研究，结合对相同样品的塑料碳和有机碳的分析。在大西洋的BATS/ S站进行这样的实验，将检验塑料碳现在占海洋表面有机碳总量很大一部分的假设。该项目将提供塑料碳分析的新方法，包括尺寸小至0.2微米的纳米塑料，并揭示海洋科学家现在是否需要考虑塑料碳作为样品中的分析物的作用，以及作为海洋表面生物地球化学和生态的活跃成分。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Like life and the natural organic material life leaves behind, plastics are carbon-based. In use, plastics remain a wonder material, facilitating technological advancement. However, once discarded, their durability allows plastics to accumulate. One place that plastics are accumulating is at the surface of the open ocean. This project will collect samples from the open ocean and measure both natural organic carbon and plastic-carbon concentrations. The team hypothesize that in some places at the surface ocean there will be as much or even more plastic-carbon than natural organic carbon. If the team are correct, this will change how they and other ocean scientists interpret the carbon signatures observed in ocean samples and indicate our surface oceans have been fundamentally changed by plastic pollution. Plastics are carbon-based polymers and an emergent component of the carbon-cycle. Data for plastics and organic carbon at sea are collected by different scientific communities, using different methods. Comparing data from these two communities suggests plastic-carbon may now rival concentrations of biogenic OC at the surface of the ocean. In this EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) project, the team will conduct an interdisciplinary study combining analysis of plastic-carbon and organic carbon for the same samples. Doing so in the Atlantic Ocean at BATS/Hydrostation “S” will test the hypothesis that plastic-carbon is now a significant fraction of total organic carbon at the sea surface. The project will deliver new methods for plastic-carbon analysis, including for nanoplastics down to 0.2 microns in size, and reveal whether ocean scientists now need to consider the role of plastic-carbon as an analyte in their samples and as an active component of the biogeochemistry and ecology of the surface ocean.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.