PLOCLEAN

Plastic pollution is an increasingly present threat to marine ecosystems. When microscopic particles (microplastics) are discarded into waterways, they can interact with microbial communities and alter their distribution and activity. In addition, they can perturb the biogeochemical cycling events in which microbes participate. The EU-funded PLOCEAN project will combine field observations and theoretical studies to investigate how microplastics affect the microbes’ ability to transform organic compounds. The project will use cutting-edge polymer characterisation and metagenomics techniques to study plastic-specific microbial communities, their contribution to organic particles' ageing and their interaction with organic matrices. An important part of the work will be devoted to outreach activities and citizen science.