Collaborative Research: Terrestrial microplastic pollution: understudied sources, source tracking, and citizen science

合作研究：陆地微塑料污染：未充分研究的来源、来源追踪和公民科学

• 批准号: 1917614
• 负责人: Shannon Bartelt-Hunt
• 金额: $ 20.97万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1917614&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Terrestrial; microplastic; pollution

Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters. Microplastics are found in aquatic and terrestrial environments across the globe. Past research has established that stormwater, wastewater effluent, and runoff from urban areas and agricultural fields can carry microplastics into rivers, lakes, and streams. However, the details of how microplastics move in the environment is largely unknown. The goal of this research is to address this gap in our knowledge by measuring plastics in urban, suburban, and rural areas. These results will determine the influence of land use on microplastics entering into aquatic systems in the US. Results from this study will be used to assess the impact of legislative bans on microplastics in consumer products. The research will be facilitated by using citizen science groups trained and engaged to measure plastic levels in water in their communities. The impact of the citizen science efforts will increase the scientific literacy of the engaged groups, and results will be disseminated to the public, stakeholders, and regulatory agencies tasked with managing microplastics wastes. Although research has shown that over 12.7 million metric tons of microplastic waste enters the ocean on an annual basis, the relative importance of microplastics from different terrestrial sources (e.g., land application of biosolids, urban stormwater) is poorly understood. A multipronged study of microplastic transport in the environment involving field surveys and controlled field studies will be performed to address this knowledge gap. The specific objectives are to quantify loading rates, particle morphology, and composition of microplastics for two under-reported terrestrial transport routes and evaluate microplastic source tracking techniques in freshwater across disparate geographies. To date, no study has evaluated source tracking consistently across geographies. To overcome these limitations of past research, polymer identification will be performed using various techniques including FT-IR and/or micro-FT-IR. The project team will leverage ongoing collaborations with citizen scientists to carry out the research. Scientifically defensible measurements of terrestrial and aquatic microplastics will be achieved through an extensive quality control program that includes the analysis of spiked and FT-IR evaluated samples. At the conclusion of this project, the project team will disseminate quantitative information to the scientific, stakeholder, and public communities on microplastics loading across diverse geographies that will allow assessment of the influence of microplastic usage bans and voluntary phase outs. This study represents one of the first to directly evaluate the flux of plastics from land application of biosolids and stormwater. Importantly, this work will advance science by evaluating source tracking techniques across geographies in freshwater systems, which has not been performed previously using consistent methods.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.

微塑料是小于5毫米的塑料颗粒。在全球的水生和陆地环境中发现了微塑料。过去的研究已经确定，来自城市地区和农业领域的雨水，废水废水和径流可以将微塑料运送到河流，湖泊和溪流中。但是，微塑料如何在环境中移动的细节在很大程度上尚不清楚。这项研究的目的是通过测量城市，郊区和农村地区的塑料来解决我们的知识差距。这些结果将确定土地利用对进入美国水生系统的微塑料的影响。这项研究的结果将用于评估立法禁令对消费产品中微塑料的影响。 该研究将通过使用受过培训和参与的公民科学小组来衡量其社区水中的塑性水平来促进这项研究。公民科学努力的影响将提高参与群体的科学素养，结果将被传播给公众，利益相关者和监管机构，负责管理微塑料废物。 尽管研究表明，超过1,270万吨的微塑料废物每年进入海洋，但从不同地面来源（例如，生物固体的土地应用，城市雨水）的微塑料相对重要。将对涉及现场调查和受控现场研究的环境中的微塑料转运进行多运输研究，以解决这一知识差距。具体目标是量化两个未经报告的陆地运输路线的微塑料的载荷速率，颗粒形态和组成，并评估跨不同地区的淡水中的微塑料源跟踪技术。 迄今为止，尚无研究的来源跟踪跨地理位置。 为了克服过去研究的这些局限性，将使用包括FT-IR和/或Micro-FT-IR在内的各种技术进行聚合物识别。项目团队将利用与公民科学家进行的持续合作来进行研究。通过广泛的质量控制计划，将实现对陆生和水生微塑料的科学辩护测量，其中包括对尖刺和FT-IR评估的样品进行分析。在该项目结束时，项目团队将向科学，利益相关者和公共社区传播定量信息，以跨不同地理位置进行微塑料加载，这将允许评估微塑料使用禁令和自愿阶段的影响。这项研究代表了最早通过生物固体和雨水的土地应用来评估塑料通量的研究之一。重要的是，这项工作将通过评估淡水系统中跨地理位置的来源跟踪技术来推进科学，而淡水系统中尚未使用一致的方法进行科学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准通过评估来进行评估。

项目成果

Source tracking microplastics in the freshwater environment

• DOI: 10.1016/j.trac.2018.11.030
• 发表时间: 2019-03-01
• 期刊: TRAC-TRENDS IN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 13.1
• 作者: Fahrenfeld, N. L.;Arbuckle-Keil, Georgia;Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon L.
• 通讯作者: Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon L.