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材料一样，塑料是以碳为基础的。在使用中，塑料仍然是一种神奇的材料，促进了技术进步。然而，一旦丢弃，它们的耐用性就会让塑料积累起来。塑料堆积的一个地方是开阔海洋的表面。该项目将从公海采集样本，并测量天然有机碳和塑料碳的浓度。研究小组假设，在海洋表面的一些地方，塑料碳的含量将与天然有机碳一样多，甚至更多。如果研究小组是正确的，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信号的解释，并表明塑料污染已经从根本上改变了我们的表层海洋。塑料是碳基聚合物，也是碳循环的紧急组成部分。不同的科学界使用不同的方法收集海洋中的塑料和有机碳的数据。比较这两个社区的数据表明，塑料碳现在可能与海洋表面的生物成因有机碳浓度相媲美。在这个早期概念探索性研究补助金(AGER)项目中，该团队将对相同的样品进行一项跨学科的研究，结合塑料碳和有机碳的分析。在大西洋的BATS/“S”号水电站进行这项工作，将检验塑料碳现在在海面总有机碳中所占比例很大的假设。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-碳作为样本中的分析物以及作为表层海洋生物地球化学和生态的活跃成分的作用。该奖项反映了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。

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.