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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
- Barrett, Justine,Chase, Zanna,Zhang, Jing,Holl, Mark M. Banaszak,Willis, Kathryn,Williams, Alan,Hardesty, Britta D.,Wilcox, Chris (2020) Microplastic Pollution in Deep-Sea Sediments From the Great Australian Bight. Frontiers in Marine Science 7 pp-. 10.3389/fmars.2020.576170
- data sourced from following voyages RE2017_C01
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 | Investigator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| IN2024_V02 [details] |
Shadwick (CSIRO O&A) | The primary objective is to first deploy a new set of SOTS moorings (SOFS-13 and SAZ-26) and then recover the existing SOTS moorings (SOFS-12, SOFS-11-SWAP and SAZ-25). Each of the SOTS moorings delivers to specific aspects of the atmosphere-ocean exchanges: • the SAZ sediment trap mooring collects samples to quantify the transfer of carbon and other nutrients to the ocean interior by sinking particles and investigate their ecological controls. • the Southern Ocean Flux Station (SOFS) mooring measures meteorological and ocean properties important to air-sea exchanges, ocean stratification, waves, currents and biological productivity and ecosystem structure. Water samples are collected for more detailed nutrient and plankton investigations after recovery. Ancillary work will obtain supporting information on atmospheric and oceanographic conditions using CTD casts, underway measurements, Continuous Plankton Recorder, and autonomous profiling Biogeochemical-Argo floats, and potentially casts of a bio-optical sensor package. |
| 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: 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. |