Improving the characterization and understanding of global contribution to environmental impacts of plastic debris in aquatic environments

Abstract

The project will be innovative by development of chemical and biological methods and dataassociated with the impacts of macro- and micro-plastic debris in aquatic environments, a fastgrowingglobal source of contaminants of concern (COCs) for both human health andenvironmental risk. Particularly these COC-plastics straddle critical habitats in remote areas thatmight impact US Navy responsibility and interests. Research towards the role of microplasticsregarding the bioavailability of globally persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such aspolychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) to critical receptors in the food chain is growing in the US, butit is in very early developmental stages in Southeast Asia, even though the top 5 countries thatproduce the most plastic pollution to marine environments include sources from Asia. It is ofhigh importance for the US Navy to understand the global contribution of plastic-associatedcontaminants at its sites, particularly at its sites in the Pacific Ocean.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Jan 09, 2020
Source ID
N629092012006

Entities

People

  • Bao-son Trinh

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Groundwater Contamination Remediation.
  • Marine Ecotoxicology