Cooperation is Key: Training Experts to Support Evidence-Based Decision Making Around the Management of Microplastics in the Ocean
<p style="color:#808080">Plastic waste at Galapagos coast, Ecuador (Photo: F. Oberhaensli/IAEA) </p><p>
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Sunlight, wind and waves break down plastic debris into smaller and smaller pieces that eventually become microplastics. Exfoliants in the health and beauty industry and the synthetic fibres used in clothes and textiles also contribute to microplastic pollution. Microplastics harm marine life – they are ingested by sea animals that mistake them for food. This then enters the human food chain.
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Learn how the IAEA and its partners are helping scientists to improve how they measure this phenomenon worldwide, through an example of IAEA technical cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Text: Andrea Galindo)</p>
Thanks to capacity building activities carried out under the umbrella of the IAEA’s NUTEC Plastics initiative, experts in the Latin America and the Caribbean region are now monitoring plastic pollution at 139 beaches or shorelines. When NUTEC Plastics was launched three years ago, only 18 beaches in the region were being monitored.
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In this picture, experts from more than 17 countries of the region participate in an IAEA-organized training course in Brazil, in cooperation with Fluminense Federal University (August 2022).
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: L. Chao/Fluminense Federal University) </p>
During the training course, participants learned how to collect, identify, separate and count microplastics of 0.3 and 5 mm, using standardized techniques and protocols. The picture shows hands-on training at a beach. <p>
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By analysing microplastic samples, experts can extract information about the source of plastic pollution. This data can be shared with local authorities to support decision making on banning certain types of plastics (or polymers), regulating the disposal of certain plastic products and facilitating recycling programmes for certain materials. All these interventions can contribute to fighting plastic pollution in the long term.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: L. Chao/Fluminense Federal University) </p>
As part of the training course, the participants boarded the Ciências do Mar II vessel, where they learned more about collecting samples to study the movement and fate of microplastics in the oceans. This data can be used to better understand the extent and the causes of plastic pollution in each marine ecosystem.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: D. Carrasco/REMARCO) </p>
The sampling includes collecting small pieces of the seabed (pictured) so that the sediments or hard particles that have accumulated can be analysed. Barbara Cardozo (pictured) is one of the 32 scientists from Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela that attended the training.
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These countries regularly cooperate with each other via a regional network, Research Network of Marine-Coastal Stressors in Latin America and the Caribbean (REMARCO), which carries out research and cooperation on marine and coastal stressors in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. REMARCO’s goal is to support science-based decision making and to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 14 targets on plastic debris.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: D. Carrasco/REMARCO) </p>
Ana Carolina Ruiz-Fernández (centre), one of the lead instructors at the training course, works as a scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).<p>
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“It is important that we help each other in research activities because they are very expensive. They require equipment, such as this vessel, which is not available in every country. If we cooperate with each other, we can share costs and grow together,” she said.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: D. Carrasco/REMARCO) </p>
“A lot of universities and institutions are trying to understand the microplastic pollution issue. They try to establish the origin of microplastics, their movements, their accumulation and their impact. However, since it is a new topic, there is no harmony in the methodologies that are being used. The objective of this training is to agree on standardized ways to do things, so that we can compare data from the multiple studies carried out by different countries,” Ruiz-Fernández explained.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: A. Guimaraes/Fluminense Federal University) </p>
“Thanks to this course facilitated by the IAEA, participants learned how to identify the main sources of microplastics in water and sediment samples to understand their impact on nature," said Marcelo Muniz, post-doctoral researcher at the Fluminense Federal University, referring to the final part of the training where participants were taught standardized ways to use nuclear, isotopic and correlated techniques to study microplastics, such as the analysis of polymers using an ATR-FTIR system. “The IAEA's work is very interesting, because it is creating hubs that share knowledge and capabilities in the region.”
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: L. Chao/Fluminense Federal University) </p>
Alongside the training supported through NUTEC Plastics, national laboratories are expected to become part of an international network of NUTEC Plastic Monitoring Laboratories. Such a network will support the harmonization of sampling and analysis protocols, the sharing of experiences and best practices, and the establishment of a centralized database to store, manage and analyse data on microplastic marine monitoring from various countries across the world.<p>
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Currently, 63 countries are taking part in the monitoring component of the IAEA’s NUTEC Plastics initiative.
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<p style="color:#808080">(Photo: L. Chao/Fluminense Federal University) </p>
