Recently the acceleration of marine microplastic pollution has increased the need to develop novel collaborative tools to address synergistic drivers affecting coastal and oceanic ecosystems. One of the main hurdles is the lack of a standardized, comparable and integrated approach for smaller (micro- and nano-) plastic pollution studies. The i-plastic project aims to assess the dispersion and impacts of micro- and nano-plastics in the tropical and temperate oceans, from the regional land-ocean interface to the open ocean. We quantified the seasonal transport and dispersion in three selected estuaries and adjacent coastal waters and shorelines under distinct flow and climate regimes. In-situ seasonal monitoring was performed in the selected systems of the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. The impacts on distinct commercially valuable species from the target regions were addressed through in-situ observations and laboratory experiments. New approaches were implemented to detect and characterize nano-plastics in different environmental matrices and ascertain processes of macro-plastic fragmentation. Finally, the data generated during the i-plastic project were used to feed regional and ocean-scale models to trace the dispersion of microplastics in the selected coastal systems, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. The i-plastic project provided missing knowledge concerning the dynamics and fate of plastics in the ocean and the effects of microplastics on the ecosystems of different target areas and worldwide, by making projections to understand the impacts and dispersion of micro- and nano-plastics in the next decades.

Primary Presenter: P Ziveri, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (patrizia.ziveri@uab.cat)

Authors:

Michaël Grelaud, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB),   (michael.grelaud@uab.cat)

Paula Sobral, NOVA University Lisbon  (psobral@fct.unl.pt)

Ana Filipa Bessa, University of Coimbra  (afbessa@uc.pt)

Carla Palma, Instituto Hidrográfico Lisboas, Portugal  (Carla.Palma@hidrografico.pt)

Giuseppe Egidio De Benedetto, Universita` del Salento  (giuseppe.debenedetto@unisalento.it)

Cosimino Malitesta, Universita` del Salento  (cosimino.malitesta@unisalento.it)

Sergio Rossi, Universita` del Salento  (sergio.rossi@unisalento.it)

Carlos Teixeira, Federal University of Ceará   (carlos.teixeira@ufc.br)

Marcelo Soares, Federal University of Ceará   (marcelosoares@ufc.br)