Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health in a Changing Environment

变化环境中的安大略湖微塑料与人类健康中心是一项为期五年的努力，目的是在五大湖气候变化的背景下帮助防止微塑料对人类健康的负面影响。五大湖是世界上最大的地表淡水系统，是3000多万人的重要资源。气候变化正在以显著的方式影响五大湖，水变暖，酸碱度下降，降水模式发生变化。与此同时，塑料污染正在湖泊中积累，对生态系统和人类健康的影响在很大程度上是未知的。该中心将处理五大湖内对人类健康具有重大意义的重大未被研究的变化。由于塑料周期的每个阶段都有许多未知因素，需要多学科的系统科学方法来促进理解和提供解决方案。当微塑料进入环境时，会发生可能影响其生物活性的变化。塑料垃圾的分解取决于湖泊的物理、化学和生物条件，所有这些都受到气候变化的影响。人体接触微塑料可能通过摄入、吸入空气中的微粒和皮肤接触而发生。小型微塑料特别令人担忧，因为它们有可能进入人体，突破上皮屏障，并与细胞相互作用。该中心将围绕1)三个独立但综合的研究项目，2)一个共同的材料和测量设施，为所有三个项目服务，以及3)一个社区参与核心，专注于与社区合作伙伴的多方向参与。该中心将与广泛和多样化的合作伙伴联盟合作，既开展社区科学，又促进环境健康素养。这些活动包括让居民参与监测泥石流的努力，以及为包括青年、教育工作者、社区团体和城乡决策者在内的受众编制、评估和传播宣传材料。该项目将为博士后研究员、研究生和本科生提供培训。该中心由美国国家科学基金会海洋科学部和美国国家环境健康科学研究所(NIEHS)共同支持。该中心的研究建立在这样一个假设之上：气候变化和淡水塑料污染之间的相互作用将对人类和环境健康产生越来越多的负面影响。材料和计量核心将产生“处女”微塑料，并表征真实世界的微塑料样品，供三个研究项目使用，同时开发新的方法，促进未来的微塑料和人类健康研究。项目1建立在几年工作的基础上，旨在了解安大略湖盆地人为垃圾的输入、运输和命运，以便更好地预测安大略湖塑料污染的风险。根据这些初步研究，研究小组假设，气候相关因素将通过增加雨水径流，增加消费后塑料向安大略湖的输送，预计温度、pH和风暴强度的变化将(1)增加淋溶以及次级微塑料的降解和形成的速度，(2)促进生物膜的形成和对病原菌和抗生素具有耐药性的微生物的丰富，以及(3)增强生态毒性。该项目将测量陆地(主要是城市)系统中的碎片积累，测量雨水对水道的输入，并评估降水在具有不同地表和人口特征的环境中的碎片运输中的作用。项目2建立在正在进行的研究的基础上，这些研究表明，纳米膜技术可用于过滤水和浓缩保留物中的微塑料，并从空气中取样微塑料，以促进对微塑料的生物利用度的研究。该项目将评估安大略湖水中可能接触皮肤和/或被意外摄入的上皮屏障和近岸空气样本中微塑料的存在，以量化可呼吸的微塑料。项目3将利用非洲爪哇两栖动物严格评估微塑料在胚胎后蝌蚪组织中的生物分布和积累，使用原始微塑料和环境衍生的微塑料，然后在模拟气候变化预计将发生的环境条件下评估微塑料摄入对高效免疫系统和抗病毒免疫发展的急性和长期影响。该团队还将使用结果来确定适用于人类研究的可靠生物标记物。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health in a Changing Environment is a five-year effort to help prevent negative human health impacts of microplastics in the context of climate change in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes are the largest surface freshwater system in the world and are a critical resource for more than 30 million people. Climate change is impacting the Great Lakes in significant ways, with warming water, decreased pH, and shifting precipitation patterns. At the same time, plastic pollution is accumulating in the lakes, with largely unknown consequences for ecosystem and human health. This Center will address critical understudied changes within the Great Lakes that have significance for human health. Because of the many unknowns about every stage of the plastic cycle, multidisciplinary systems science approaches are needed to advance understanding and inform solutions. When microplastics enter the environment, transformations occur that may impact their bioactivity. Breakdown of plastic debris depends on the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the lake, all of which are affected by climate changes. Human exposure to microplastics may occur through ingestion, inhalation of airborne particles, and skin contact. Small microplastics are of particular concern because of their potential to enter the body, breech the epithelial barrier, and interact with cells. The Center will be built around 1) three separate but integrated research projects, 2) a common facility on materials and measurement that will serve all three projects, and 3) a Community Engagement Core focused on multidirectional engagement with community partners. The center will engage with a broad and diverse coalition of partners to both conduct community science and promote environmental health literacy. These activities include involving residents in efforts to monitor debris flows, and developing, evaluating, and disseminating outreach materials for audiences including youth, educators, community groups, and policy makers in both urban and rural settings. The project will provide training for postdoctoral research fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. The Center is jointly supported by NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences and by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).The Center’s research is built around the hypothesis that the interactions between climate change and freshwater plastic pollution will have increasingly negative consequences for human and environmental health. The Materials and Metrology Core will generate ‘virgin’ microplastics and characterize real-world microplastics samples for use by three research projects, while developing novel approaches to facilitate future microplastics and human health research. Project 1 builds on several years of work aimed at understanding the input, transport and fate of anthropogenic debris in the Lake Ontario basin in order to better predict the risk of plastic pollution in Lake Ontario. Informed by these preliminary studies, the team hypothesizes that climate-related factors will increase the delivery of post-consumer plastic to Lake Ontario through increased stormwater runoff, and that projected changes in temperature, pH, and storm intensity will (1) increase leaching and the rate of degradation and formation of secondary microplastics, (2) promote biofilm formation and abundance of pathogenic and antibiotic resistant organisms, and (3) enhance ecotoxicity. The project will measure debris accumulation in the terrestrial (mostly urban) system, measure input to waterways in stormwater, and assess the role of precipitation in debris transport across environments with different surface and population characteristics. Project 2 builds on on-going studies that demonstrate the utility of nanomembrane technology to filter water and concentrate microplastics in the retentate and to sample microplastics from air to facilitate research on the bioavailability of microplastic. The project will evaluate the presence of microplastics in size ranges that can breech epithelial barriers in Lake Ontario water that may contact skin and/or be accidentally ingested and in nearshore air samples to quantify respirable microplastics. Project 3 will leverage the amphibian Xenopus to rigorously assess microplastics biodistribution and accumulation in post-embryonic tadpole tissues, using both virgin and environmentally-derived microplastics, then evaluate the acute and long-term effects resulting from microplastics ingestion on the development of an efficient immune system and antiviral immunity under environmental conditions that mimic those projected to occur with climate change. The team will also use results to identify reliable biomarkers applicable for human studies.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.