AIRSEA-PLASTIC

Plastic pollution in our oceans is a pressing global issue, with microplastics (MPs) spreading to even the most remote regions. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the AIRSEA-PLASTIC project aims to understand one of the most uncertain processes in this pollution cycle: the emission of MPs from the ocean to the atmosphere. This project hypothesises that these emissions significantly contribute to global MP dispersal. Researchers will engage in field observations to collect and identify marine-atmospheric MPs, conduct experiments to understand water-to-air MP transfer, and utilise numerical modelling to track their atmospheric fate. This interdisciplinary study will enhance our understanding of MPs as environmental contaminants and their broader impact on ecosystems. In this project, I will focus on one of the most uncertain processes governing the worldwide spreading of plastic particles, the ocean-to-atmosphere emission of microplastics (MPs). I hypothesize that these marine emissions are significant at the global scale and contribute to dispersal of MPs to remote ocean regions and back to land. I propose an innovative and complementary approach to test this hypothesis based on three Training & Research Objectives (TROs) including Field Observation and MPs identification (TRO1): The goal is to collect and identify marine-atmospheric MPs from surface ocean and atmospheric marine boundary layer; I will be trained for field sampling and MPs identification methods. Experimentation (TRO2): The purpose will be parameterization of the water-to-air transfer of MPs via bubble bursting experiments; I will be trained in laboratory experiments on bubble bursting MP emission. Modeling (TRO3): I will be trained for numerical ocean-atmosphere modeling of MPs emitted via sea spray and their atmospheric fate. All these three TROs will be addressed at the host institute CNRS-GET in Toulouse, and at UGA and AMU (secondments). In general, this interdisciplinary approach combining field observations, experimental work and modeling will enlarge our knowledge of the fate and global dispersal of MPs, constituting a threat in themselves but also as potential chemical and biological contaminants carrier, and will thus contribute to the characterization of the human, animal and plant exposomes.