Bioavailability and biological effects of microscopic plastic debris in the ocean

海洋中微小塑料碎片的生物利用度和生物效应

基本信息

批准号：
NE/L007010/1
负责人：
Tamara Susan Galloway
金额：
$ 46.61万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2014
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2014 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FL007010%2F1
关键词：
Bioavailability biological effects microscopic plastic

项目摘要

Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic debris is discarded as waste and marine plastic litter is emerging as both a threat to the oceans and a major challenge for society to manage. Once plastic waste has entered the sea, the combined action of winds and tides leads to the fragmentation of larger plastic debris into microscopic particles. These microscopic particles have become so numerous, either floating in the ocean or accumulating in sediments and on shorelines, that they are emerging as a global conservation issue of high concern. We have been studying what happens when microplastics are ingested by marine organisms at the lower end of the marine food web, including zooplankton that swim and feed in surface waters and marine worms that live in sediments at the ocean bottom. In our laboratory studies, ingestion of microplastics alongside food items led to reductions in body mass and reproduction. After the particles had been egested, they sank more slowly in the water column. This is important because the biomass of zooplankton and worms (so-called secondary producers) and the sinking rates of faecal pellets, are extremely important for the cycling of carbon and other nutrients in the oceans, which in turn is central to supporting all marine life. In this proposal, we will build on these early findings to determine their significance for ocean life. We will study in detail how much microscopic plastic is actually being ingested by zooplankton collected from sites near to shorelines in UK waters. We will take samples from across a yearly cycle to understand how the abundance of plastic debris and its ingestion by zooplankton vary with seasonal cycles. We will study the factors such as size, shape and type of plastic that influence how much microplastic is consumed and the biological effects that it may have on organisms in the aquarium. We will enter these results into models of ocean functions to predict what sites, if any, are most vulnerable to microplastics contamination and where the densities of microplastics may become comparable to those of invertebrate prey items. We will then use models to predict the impacts of this contamination on important ocean functions, such as the types of animals present and the cycling of both carbon and nutrients throughout the water column. This project will provide important scientific results to improve our understanding of key ecological functions in the oceans, illustrate how our discarded waste materials may be capable of impacting on important ocean processes, and may highlight vulnerable sites or species that require special protection. This data will be of use to environmental managers and policy makers who are required by law to keep our seas clean and reduce the risk of direct or indirect harm to human and ocean health. Ultimately the results are important to everyone in society, and may help to build up a body of evidence to encourage us not to litter in the first place

每年，随着废物和海洋塑料垃圾的出现，数百万吨的塑料碎片被丢弃，这既是对海洋的威胁，又是社会管理的主要挑战。一旦塑料废物进入大海，风和潮汐的联合作用就会导致较大的塑料碎屑碎裂成微观颗粒。这些显微镜颗粒已经变得如此众多，要么漂浮在海洋中，要么在沉积物和海岸线上积聚，以至于它们正成为一个高度关注的全球保护问题。我们一直在研究海洋食品网下端的海洋生物摄入微塑料时会发生什么，包括在地表水中游泳和进食的浮游动物，这些浮游生物和海洋蠕虫生活在海底的沉积物中。在我们的实验室研究中，摄入微塑料以及食品以及繁殖的减少。颗粒被占主导后，它们在水柱中的沉入速度较慢。这很重要，因为浮游动物和蠕虫的生物量（所谓的二级生产者）和粪便颗粒的下沉速率对于碳和海洋中其他养分的循环非常重要，这又对支持所有海洋生物而言至关重要。在此提案中，我们将基于这些早期发现，以确定它们对海洋生物的重要性。我们将详细研究从英国水域的海岸线附近收集的浮游动物实际摄入了多少微观塑料。我们将在每年的周期中采集样本，以了解塑料碎片的丰度及其浮游动物的摄入如何随季节性周期而变化。我们将研究影响量的大小，形状和类型的因素，这些因素会影响多少微塑料以及它可能对水族馆生物体产生的生物学作用。我们将将这些结果输入海洋功能模型，以预测哪些站点（如果有的话）最容易受到微塑料污染的影响，以及微塑料的密度可能与无脊椎动物猎物的密度相媲美。然后，我们将使用模型来预测这种污染对重要海洋功能的影响，例如存在的动物类型以及整个水柱中碳和养分的循环。该项目将提供重要的科学结果，以提高我们对海洋中关键生态功能的理解，说明我们废弃的废物如何能够影响重要的海洋过程，并可能突出需要特殊保护的脆弱地点或物种。这些数据将用于环境经理和政策制定者，他们要求法律要求我们的海洋清洁，并降低对人类和海洋健康的直接或间接伤害的风险。最终，结果对社会中的每个人都很重要，并且可能有助于建立大量证据，以鼓励我们首先不要乱扔垃圾