Invisible Threats to Oceans (InTO): assessing the combined toxicity effects of emerging anthropogenic pollutants on microbial communities

项目主题为“生态系统面临挑战：气候、污染、复原力、资源管理、社会福祉”。今天，超过1000种新出现的污染物（例如纳米材料、微塑料、表面活性剂、药品和多氯联苯、杀虫剂等）已在欧洲水生环境中被报道（http://www.norman-network.net）。InTO项目将解决紫外线过滤器和纳米塑料这两种新兴污染物对海洋细菌的综合影响。海洋细菌是地球上最丰富的生物，是地球生物地球化学平衡的关键参与者，也是生物修复过程的核心。与微塑料和纳米塑料污染类似，广泛用于化妆品和个人护理产品（pcp）的有机紫外线过滤器最近也被确定为沿海水域中普遍存在的污染物。人们认识到，由于这些化学品的持久性、化学性质、大量生产以及对海洋生物的生物积累和毒性作用，它们正在成为我们海洋日益关注的问题。化妆品在英国代表着100亿欧元的巨大市场（欧盟委员会2015年），这为苏格兰大学在评估这些类型的新兴污染物对海洋的影响和影响方面提供了巨大的激励和机会。废物或废弃的塑料可以机械降解成微型塑料，并最终随着时间的推移，纳米塑料。纳米塑料不仅直接影响水生生物，而且还吸附其他有机污染物，如紫外线过滤器，产生具有潜在协同毒性作用的“组合式”污染。InTO项目旨在首次揭示这些新型人为污染物对微生物群落的综合毒性影响。该项目完全符合苏格兰海洋科学战略的目标，即提供“清洁、健康、安全、富有生产力、生物多样性的海洋和沿海环境，设法满足人与自然的长期需求”，因为从该项目中获得的知识可能影响决策者。

The theme this project addresses is "Challenged ecosystems: climate, pollution, resilience, resource management, societal wellbeing".Today, more than 1000 emerging pollutants (e.g. nanomaterial, microplastics, surfactants, pharmaceuticals and PCBs, pesticides, amongst many others) have been reported in the European aquatic environment (http://www.norman-network.net). The InTO project will address the combined effects of two emerging pollutants, UV-filters and nanoplastics, on marine bacteria, the most abundant organisms on Earth that are key players of the biogeochemical balances of our planet and are at the heart of bioremediation processes. Similarly as with micro and nanoplastics pollution, organic UV-filters, which are used in a wide range of cosmetics and personal care products (PCPs), have also been recently identified as ubiquitous contaminants in coastal waters. Such chemicals are recognised of emerging concern to our oceans due to their persistence, as related to their chemical properties, large production volumes, and their bioaccumulation and toxic effects on marine organisms. Cosmetics represent a huge market of 10 billion euros in the UK (European Commission 2015), offering a significant incentive, and indeed opportunity here, for Scottish Universities to be leading the way in assessing the effects and impacts of these types of emerging pollutants in our oceans. Waste or discarded plastics can be mechanically degraded into micro, and eventually over time, nanoplastics. Nanoplastics not only directly affect aquatic organisms but also adsorb other organic contaminants, such as UV-filters, producing a 'combined' pollution with potentially synergistic toxic effects. The InTO project aims to unravel, for the first time, the combined toxicity effects of these types of emerging anthropogenic pollutants on microbial communities. The project is well aligned to the aims of the Scottish Marine Science Strategy in delivering 'clean, healthy, safe, productive, biologically diverse marine and coastal environments, managed to meet the long-term needs of people and nature', as the knowledge gained from this project could impact policy makers.