Southern Ocean Microplastic Flux: Ecosystem and Carbon Impacts

南大洋微塑料通量：生态系统和碳影响

• 批准号: 2870298
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2870298
• 关键词: Southern; Ocean; Microplastic; Flux; Ecosystem

Plastic pollution has become a global environmental issue, reaching even the most pristine and remote wildernesses of our planet, such as the Southern Ocean (SO). This region plays a major role in global oceanic circulation and provides fundamental ecosystem services to our planet, being responsible for 40% of the global atmospheric carbon uptake. Being well adapted to extreme but stable environmental conditions,Antarctic species are considered more vulnerable to environmental perturbations and pollutants, compared to species from lower latitudes. Thus, plastic pollution poses a serious threat to SO marine biota. Microplastics (< 5mm) will likely pose a greater environmental hazard as particles become more available for ingestion, with an increase in surface area facilitating chemical and biological interactions. However, the ways in which microplastics are transported to the deep ocean are still largely unknown. Understanding the fate of microplastic and quantifying the scale of the problem are necessary in order to minimize the environmental risks to and impacts on this unique biodiversity. The focus of this project is to investigate the main biological driver promoting the vertical fluxes of microplastics within the water column in a region of the Southern Ocean, to assess the influence of microplastic on marine ecosystem and biogeochemical cycle. The project is in the frame of CUPIDO project(https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/cupido/) that aims to quantify the impact of microplastic pollution on the ability of the ocean to uptake and transport atmospheric carbon in the oceanic sediment.

塑料污染已成为一个全球环境问题，即使是我们地球上最原始和最偏远的荒野，例如南大洋（SO）。该地区在全球海洋循环中起着重要作用，并为我们的星球提供基本的生态系统服务，负责全球大气碳吸收的40％。与低纬度物种相比，南极物种非常适合极端但稳定的环境条件，被认为更容易受到环境扰动和污染物的影响。因此，塑料污染对如此海洋生物群构成了严重威胁。随着颗粒的摄入量更高，微塑料（<5mm）可能会带来更大的环境危害，并且表面积增加了促进化学和生物学相互作用。但是，将微塑料运输到深海的方式仍然很大程度上是未知的。必须了解微塑料的命运并量化问题的规模，以最大程度地降低环境风险并对这种独特的生物多样性产生影响。该项目的重点是研究主要的生物驱动器，以促进南大洋地区水柱内微塑料的垂直通量，以评估微塑料对海洋生态系统和生物地球化学周期的影响。该项目位于丘比特项目（https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/cupido/）中，旨在量化微塑料污染对海洋吸收能力和在海洋沉积物中的大气碳的能力的影响。