MicroplasticX is a collaborative and interdisciplinary project aims to improve our understanding of the weathering, degradation and fragmentation processes that affect microplastics under environmental conditions, an urgent problem for which relatively little information is yet available. The UN has recognized marine litter to have negative effects on aquatic ecosystems and potentially on human health. After being discharged into the marine environment, plastics undergo weathering and biofouling processes shaped by environmental conditions that lead to their fragmentation into microplastics. MicroplastiX develops a holistic approach combining field data and laboratory experiments; evaluates the interaction of plastic with biota (including release of chemicals and sorbed pollutants); creates an inventory of colonization taxa; evaluates horizontal and vertical transport, gradients and temporal distribution, all contributing to advanced multi-scale models for predicting fate and pathways
