Project R-11201

Impact of weathered-like micro- and nanoplastics on the aquatic model systems S. mediterranea and D. magna. (Research)

Plastics are inescapable in our modern world. Every year 300-million-ton plastic is produced worldwide. Over the last decade, the wide distribution of plastic pollution became one of the most serious environmental issues and concerns are increasing. A subfraction of the plastic debris are micro-and nanoplastics (NMPs). To date, they are found all over the world and contaminate our water bodies, sediments and aquatic organisms. Most studies focused on the marine environment and showed that NMPs have the ability to cause adverse effects in aquatic organisms. Despite the fact that for microplastics, the adverse effects are widely described, the underlying toxicity mechanisms still have to be discovered. Information about the parameters that determine the toxicity (shape, size, contaminants) is missing and studies on the nanoscale are almost completely lacking. In this research, I will tackle these knowledge gaps and the current needs identified by governmental institutions. I aim to determine the parameters causing toxicity, the uptake characteristics and modes of action, focusing on weathered-like plastics on the nanoscale. I will focus on the toxicokinetics and dynamics on a longer time scale, and after a recovery period. All the experiments will be conducted on two freshwater model organisms; Daphnia magna and Schmidtea mediterranea, to tackle species-specific effects in function of a better understanding of the risk that NMPs pose on the aquatic environment.

01 November 2020 - 31 October 2024