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.

安大略湖变化环境中的微塑料与人类健康中心历经五年努力，旨在帮助预防五大湖气候变化背景下微塑料对人类健康的负面影响。五大湖是美国最大的地表淡水系统。气候变化对五大湖产生了重大影响，水温升高、pH 值下降，降水模式发生变化。同时，湖泊中的塑料污染不断累积。很大程度上不为人所知该中心将解决五大湖地区对人类健康具有重要意义的重大变化，因为塑料循环的每个阶段都存在许多未知因素，因此需要多学科系统科学方法来增进理解并提供解决方案。当微塑料进入环境时，会发生可能影响其生物活性的转变，塑料碎片的分解取决于湖泊的物理、化学和生物条件，所有这些都受到气候变化的影响，人类可能通过摄入而接触微塑料。吸入空气颗粒和皮肤接触特别令人关注，因为它们有可能进入人体、突破上皮屏障并与细胞相互作用。该中心将围绕 1) 三个独立但综​​合的研究项目 2 进行建设。 ）一个为所有三个项目服务的材料和测量通用设施，以及 3）一个专注于与社区合作伙伴多方位参与的社区参与核心 该中心将与广泛而多样化的合作伙伴联盟合作，开展社区科学并促进环境发展。健康这些活动包括居民监测泥石流，以及为城市和农村地区的青年、教育工作者、社区团体和政策制定者等受众制定、评估和传播宣传材料。该项目将为博士后研究提供培训。该中心由美国国家科学基金会海洋科学部和国家环境健康科学研究所 (NIEHS) 共同支持。该中心的研究基于这样的假设：气候变化与淡水塑料污染之间的相互作用将影响环境。带来越来越多的负面后果材料和计量核心将生成“原始”微塑料，并对现实世界的微塑料样本进行表征，以供三个研究项目使用，同时开发新的方法来促进未来的微塑料和人类健康研究。旨在了解安大略湖流域人为垃圾的输入、运输和归宿的工作，以便更好地预测安大略湖塑料污染的风险。根据这些初步研究，该团队认为气候相关因素将增加塑料污染的风险。交付消费后塑料通过增加的雨水径流流入安大略湖，预计温度、pH 值和风暴强度的变化将 (1) 增加二次微塑料的浸出、降解和形成速度，(2) 促进生物膜的形成和丰富的微塑料。 (3) 该项目将测量陆地（主要是城市）系统中的碎片积累，测量雨水对水道的输入，并评估降水在不同环境中碎片运输中的作用。项目 2 建立在正在进行的研究的基础上，这些研究证明了纳米膜技术在过滤水和浓缩滞留物中的微塑料以及从空气中取样以促进微塑料的生物利用度的研究的效用。该项目将评估微塑料的存在。项目 3 中，在安大略湖水中可能会接触皮肤和/或意外摄入的微塑料，其尺寸范围可能会破坏上皮屏障，以及近岸空气样本中的微塑料，以量化可吸入的微塑料。将利用两栖动物非洲爪蟾，使用原始微塑料和环境衍生的微塑料，严格评估微塑料在胚胎后蝌蚪组织中的生物分布和积累，然后评估微塑料摄入对高效免疫系统发育的急性和长期影响，以及该团队还将利用结果来识别适用于人类研究的可靠生物标志物。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并已在模拟气候变化的环境条件下产生抗病毒免疫力。通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。