Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health in a Changing Environment

安大略湖变化环境中的微塑料与人类健康中心

• 批准号: 2418255
• 负责人: Katrina Korfmacher
• 金额: $ 427.24万
• 依托单位: University of Rochester
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-15 至 2029-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2418255&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Lake; Ontario; Center; Microplastics; Human

The Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health in a Changing Environment is a five-year effort to help prevent negative human health impacts of microplastics in the context of climate change in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes are the largest surface freshwater system in the world and are a critical resource for more than 30 million people. Climate change is impacting the Great Lakes in significant ways, with warming water, decreased pH, and shifting precipitation patterns. At the same time, plastic pollution is accumulating in the lakes, with largely unknown consequences for ecosystem and human health. This Center will address critical understudied changes within the Great Lakes that have significance for human health. Because of the many unknowns about every stage of the plastic cycle, multidisciplinary systems science approaches are needed to advance understanding and inform solutions. When microplastics enter the environment, transformations occur that may impact their bioactivity. Breakdown of plastic debris depends on the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the lake, all of which are affected by climate changes. Human exposure to microplastics may occur through ingestion, inhalation of airborne particles, and skin contact. Small microplastics are of particular concern because of their potential to enter the body, breech the epithelial barrier, and interact with cells. The Center will be built around 1) three separate but integrated research projects, 2) a common facility on materials and measurement that will serve all three projects, and 3) a Community Engagement Core focused on multidirectional engagement with community partners. The center will engage with a broad and diverse coalition of partners to both conduct community science and promote environmental health literacy. These activities include involving residents in efforts to monitor debris flows, and developing, evaluating, and disseminating outreach materials for audiences including youth, educators, community groups, and policy makers in both urban and rural settings. The project will provide training for postdoctoral research fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. The Center is jointly supported by NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences and by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).The Center’s research is built around the hypothesis that the interactions between climate change and freshwater plastic pollution will have increasingly negative consequences for human and environmental health. The Materials and Metrology Core will generate ‘virgin’ microplastics and characterize real-world microplastics samples for use by three research projects, while developing novel approaches to facilitate future microplastics and human health research. Project 1 builds on several years of work aimed at understanding the input, transport and fate of anthropogenic debris in the Lake Ontario basin in order to better predict the risk of plastic pollution in Lake Ontario. Informed by these preliminary studies, the team hypothesizes that climate-related factors will increase the delivery of post-consumer plastic to Lake Ontario through increased stormwater runoff, and that projected changes in temperature, pH, and storm intensity will (1) increase leaching and the rate of degradation and formation of secondary microplastics, (2) promote biofilm formation and abundance of pathogenic and antibiotic resistant organisms, and (3) enhance ecotoxicity. The project will measure debris accumulation in the terrestrial (mostly urban) system, measure input to waterways in stormwater, and assess the role of precipitation in debris transport across environments with different surface and population characteristics. Project 2 builds on on-going studies that demonstrate the utility of nanomembrane technology to filter water and concentrate microplastics in the retentate and to sample microplastics from air to facilitate research on the bioavailability of microplastic. The project will evaluate the presence of microplastics in size ranges that can breech epithelial barriers in Lake Ontario water that may contact skin and/or be accidentally ingested and in nearshore air samples to quantify respirable microplastics. Project 3 will leverage the amphibian Xenopus to rigorously assess microplastics biodistribution and accumulation in post-embryonic tadpole tissues, using both virgin and environmentally-derived microplastics, then evaluate the acute and long-term effects resulting from microplastics ingestion on the development of an efficient immune system and antiviral immunity under environmental conditions that mimic those projected to occur with climate change. The team will also use results to identify reliable biomarkers applicable for human studies.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.

在不断变化的环境中，安大略湖微型塑料和人类健康中心是五年的努力，旨在帮助预防大湖区气候变化的背景下，微塑料对人类健康的负面影响。大湖区是世界上最大的地表淡水系统，对于超过3000万人来说是关键的资源。气候变化正在以重要的方式影响大湖区，加热水，pH值减少和降水模式变化。同时，湖泊在湖泊中积累了塑料污染，对生态系统和人类健康产生了很大的影响。该中心将解决对大湖内对人类健康具有重要意义的关键理解的变化。由于塑料周期的每个阶段都有许多未知数，需要多学科系统科学方法来提高理解和告知解决方案。当微塑料进入环境时，发生转化可能会影响其生物活性。塑料碎片的分解取决于湖泊的物理，化学和生物条件，所有这些条件都受到气候变化的影响。通过摄入，空气中颗粒和皮肤接触，可能会发生人类对微塑料的暴露。小型微型塑料特别关注，因为它们有可能进入身体，臀位上皮屏障并与细胞相互作用。该中心将建成1）三个单独但集成的研究项目，2）材料和测量的共同设施，将为所有三个项目提供服务，以及3）社区参与核心，专注于与社区合作伙伴进行多方向参与。该中心将与合作伙伴的广泛而多样性的联盟互动，以进行社区科学并促进环境健康素养。这些活动在内，包括居民，努力监控碎屑流，以及在城市和农村环境中为包括青年，教育工作者，社区团体和政策制定者在内的受众开发，评估和传播外展材料。该项目将为博士后研究研究员，研究生和本科生提供培训。该中心得到了NSF海洋科学司和美国国家环境健康科学研究所（NIEHS）的共同支持。该中心的研究建立在以下假设：气候变化与淡水塑料污染之间的相互作用将对人类和环境健康产生越来越多的负面影响。材料和计量核心将产生“维珍”的微塑料，并表征现实世界中的微型塑料样本，以供三个研究项目使用，同时开发出新颖的方法来促进未来的微塑料和人类健康研究。项目1建立在数年的工作基础上，旨在了解安大略湖盆地人为碎片的投入，运输和命运，以便更好地预测安大略湖塑料污染的风险。在这些初步研究的情况下，该团队假设与气候相关的因素将通过增加雨水径流增加后消费者的塑料向安大略湖的传递，预计温度，pH和暴风雨强度会变化（1）步行的步行和降解和形成的降解速度和二级微塑料的降解和形成，（2）促进了生物塑料和抗体，（2） （3）增强生态毒性。该项目将衡量在陆地（主要是城市）系统中的调试积累，测量雨水中水道的输入，并评估降水在跨具有不同表面和人口特征不同环境的碎屑运输中的作用。项目2建立了正在进行的研究，该研究表明纳米膜技术在保留液中过滤水和浓度微塑料的实用性，并从空气中采样微塑料，以促进对微塑料生物利用度的研究。该项目将评估尺寸范围的微塑料的存在，这些范围可以在安大略湖水中进行臀位上皮屏障，这些壁垒可能会接触皮肤和/或在近海空气样品中接触皮肤，以量化可呼吸的微塑料。项目3将利用维珍和环境衍生的微塑料进行严格评估两栖动物的Xenopus，以严格评估微塑料生物分布和积累，然后评估由微塑料产生的急性和长期影响，从而评估这些急性和长期影响。该团队还将使用结果来确定适用于人类研究的可靠生物标志物。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准的评估来支持的。