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Micro- and Nanoplastics Plastic Pollution Research at the EPA
Citation:
Giroux, M., K. Ho, AND R. Burgess. Micro- and Nanoplastics Plastic Pollution Research at the EPA. PNW Consortium on Plastics Webinar, NA, RI, November 28, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation provides an overview of the research being conducted within the Agency to assess the ecological effects of plastic particles and quantify and detect plastics in the environment. This research will help advance analytical methods for micro- and nanoplastic detection in the environment. This information is also valuable to the public because it shows that plastic particles in marine systems can have long term effects on marine organisms and communities.
Description:
Plastic particles are found ubiquitously in the environment, and as plastic abundance increases in marine systems, the adverse biological and ecological effects of plastics of various size classes (macro-, micro-, nano-) needs to be evaluated for potential risks. Marine sediments are a sink for many contaminants, including microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), and are also rich habitats for benthic meiofauna and other eukaryotic communities which form the base of the marine food webs. There are many technical challenges in measuring MPs and NPs in environmental samples. We will present an overview of our methods to extract, identify, and quantify MPs, as well as address the limitations that still exist in measuring plastic particles in environmental samples. NPs are of growing concern because they may be able to pass through biological membranes more effectively than larger microscale particles and enter marine systems primarily through fragmentation of larger plastics present in the environment. However, little is known about the effects of NPs on individual species, community diversity, or ecosystem structure. Identifying benthic organisms is a time-consuming process, but molecular methods, such as metabarcoding, which uses high-throughput sequencing to assess community diversity and structure from environmental DNA/RNA, are quicker than conventional methods. In this presentation, we will discuss the utility of using eRNA and eDNA to understand the impacts of NPs on benthic micro- and meiofaunal communities.
