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Project details

Title: Microplastics in the food chain: impact on the microbial and planktonic organisms
Id: 2503
Investigator(s): Sophie Leterme
Flinders University of South Australia - School of Earth Sciences [details]

Description: Microplastics consist of pieces of plastic smaller than 5 mm, such as the microbeads found in domestic and personal care products. Plastic pollution of oceanic ecosystems can be observed anywhere on the planet, but microplastics create a global biological and chemical hazard due to their propensity to be ingested by marine life that is later consumed by humans. Small plastics can also adhere onto the surface of micro-organisms that are preyed upon by higher levels of the oceanic food chain such as fish. The aims of the project are (i) to assess the amount of plastics (micro through to pico in size) present in blue waters around Australia and (ii) to identify their impact on microorganisms at the base of the oceanic food chain.
Years: 2019 to 2021

Publications

Journal Article


List of surveys that this project was on. Click on column header to sort.

Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.

Survey InvestigatorDescription
IN2024_T01

[details]
TBA (TBA)
IN2021_T01

[details]
V. Puigcorbe (Edith Cowan University) RV Investigator transit voyage between Brisbane and Darwin: in2021_T01, with the following supplementary and piggyback projects:
  • Microplastics in the food chain: impact on the microbial and planktonic organisms
  • Linking the Biological Carbon Pump flux to microbial colonisation of sinking particles in the Coral Sea
  • Dinoflagellates & broader planktonic assemblage observation
  • BGC-Argo Float Deployment
  • Cosmic Ray Measurements
  • Carbon Sampling
  • Flow cytometric classification of the phytoplankton community across Australia’s top end
    The primary objective of voyage IN2021_T01 is movement of RV Investigator from Brisbane to Darwin in preparation for IN2021_V04. Up to 72 hours of the transit voyage have been allocated to conduct scientific operations which will consist of a minimum of 12hrs devoted to the Supplementary Project: Microplastics in the food chain: impact on the microbial and planktonic organisms. The remaining time can be available for multiple Piggyback Projects. Some opportunistic mapping has been prepared should we be ahead of schedule.
  • IN2019_T03

    [details]
    Alain Protat (BOM) The voyage objectives are to collect Investigator C-band Doppler dual-polarization weather radar (SEAPOL), Ocean RAIN, ODM470 disdrometer, and micro rain radar (MRR-2) observations of precipitation collocated with as many radars from the BoM operational radar network located along the coast from Darwin to Fremantle.
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