ALKOR AL534/2

The proposed cruise is part of a multi-disciplinary research initiative as part of the JPI OCEAN project HOTMIC that will investigate the origin, transport and fate of plastic debris from estuaries to the oceanic garbage patches. The main focus of the cruise will be on the horizontal transfer of plastic debris from major European rivers into shelf regions and on the processes that mediate this transport. The obtained data will help to develop quantitative models that provide information about the level of plastic pollution in ocean. The cruise will provide data about the: (1) abundance of plastic debris in surface waters, including sizes smaller than 10 μm, as well as the composition of polymer types, originating in major European estuaries and transported through coastal waters, (2) abundance and composition of microplastics (MP) in the water column at different depths from the sea surface to the seafloor including the sediment, (3) abundance and composition of plastic debris in organic aggregates (“marine snow”), in pelagic and benthic organisms (invertebrates) and in fecal pellets, (4) abundance and identity of biofoulers (bacteria, protozoans and metazoans) on the surface of plastic debris from different water depths, (5) identification of chemical compounds (“additives”) in the plastic debris and in water samples.