pELAstic: a whole-ecosystem experiment to understand the fate and effects of microplastics

微塑料（MPs）在全球无处不在，但我们对其环境命运和影响的理解大多局限于理论模型和实验室实验。我们提出的项目，据我们所知，将是同类项目中的第一个，是通过实验操纵整个湖泊，测试微塑料在生态系统规模上的影响。这项实验只能在世界著名的国际可持续发展研究所的实验湖区（IISD-ELA）进行，该地区有省级和联邦立法允许进行全湖实验。IISD-ELA为现实世界的项目提供了从理论、实验室和储罐研究到自然生态系统的关键缺失步骤。在我们团队已经资助和计划的小规模实验的指导下，这个环境相关项目的研究目标是确定1)湖泊及其流域中MPs的物理、化学和生物命运；2) MPs如何影响各级生物组织的水生生态系统；3) MPs对生态系统过程和功能（如养分循环和光合作用）的影响；4)暴露于MPs的生态系统的恢复，包括MPs如何随时间分解和/或转变。根据计划目标，我们提出的研究的预期结果是通过培训不同的HQP来提高MPs的研究能力，缩小我们对水生生态系统中MPs的命运和影响的科学理解中的知识差距，开发用于MPs及其影响的采样和表征的新工具和协议（旨在解决全球对标准化/协调监测方法的需求）。并为加拿大及其他地区的风险评估和政策提供知识。

Microplastics (MPs) are globally ubiquitous, yet our understanding of their environmental fate and effects is mostly limited to theoretical models and laboratory experiments. Our proposed project, which to the best of our knowledge would be the first of its kind, is to experimentally manipulate an entire lake, testing the impacts of microplastics at the ecosystem scale. This experiment can only be carried out at the world-renowned International Institute for Sustainable Development's Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA), which has provincial and federal legislation permitting whole-lake experimentation. IISD-ELA enables real-world projects that provide a critical missing step from theoretical, lab, and tank studies to natural ecosystems. Guided by smaller-scale experiments already funded and planned by our team, the research objectives for this environmentally relevant project are to determine 1) the physical, chemical, and biological fate of MPs in lakes and their watersheds; 2) how MPs impact aquatic ecosystems across all levels of biological organization; 3) how ecosystem processes and functions, such as nutrient cycling and photosynthesis, are affected by MPs; and 4) the recovery of an ecosystem exposed to MPs, including how MPs break-down and/or transform over time. Rooted in the program objectives, the expected outcomes of our proposed research are to increase research capacity on MPs through the training of diverse HQP, close knowledge gaps in our scientific understanding of the fate and effects of MPs in aquatic ecosystems, develop new tools and protocols for the sampling and characterization of MPs and their impacts (aimed at addressing the global need for standardization/harmonization of methods to inform monitoring), and generate knowledge to inform risk assessments and policies in Canada and beyond.