ALKOR AL586

The proposed North Sea Plastics I & II cruises are integral to a framework for mapping the distribution of microplastics and their associated chemical contaminants in the coastal southern North Sea and assessing spatial and temporal variation in the delivery and fate of these land- derived pollutants. These cruises build upon a previous successful cruise (AL534/2, March 2020) that sampled stations in the North Sea to study the distribution and fate of microplastic debris (within the context of the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC). The current North Sea Plastics I & II cruises support two newly-awarded major research projects: LABPLAS (“Land-Based Solutions of Plastics in the Sea”; EU Horizon 2020) and P-LEACH (“Plastic-LEACHate impact on ecosystem function and human health”; Helmholtz Innovation Pool of the Research Field Earth and Environment, 2022-2024). These cruises aim at continuing and extending research for studying especially the smallest plastic particles (Small Micro- and Nano- Plastics, SMNP) and chemical additive compounds that leach from microplastic polymers into seawater. North Sea Plastics I & II focus on the southern North Sea as the ultimate sink for river-borne plastic pollution from the Elbe and Thames River catchments, which will be studied simultaneously as part of the LABPLAS project. The results from field- and laboratory experiments planned for these cruises link strongly to the development of a European PLastic informAtion System (ePLAS), which includes modules that describe and predict (1) transport and fate of microplastics and SMNPs in the land-river-ocean continuum, (2) biogeochemical transport reactions of contaminants associated with microplastics (leached and adsorbed contaminants), and (3) food web bioaccumulation of SMNPs. The data generated by the proposed research cruises therefore have a conduit through which they can inform policy decisions and aid efforts to reduce the impact of plastic-related pollution in the ocean.