SP - GLACE - Project 13 - Plastic pollution and marine predators around Greenland (DTA.AD003.506)
Thematic area
Earth system science and environmental technologies
Project area
Rischi ambientali, naturali e antropici (DTA.AD003)Structure responsible for the research project
Marine science institute (ISMAR)
Project manager
GIUSEPPE SUARIA
Phone number: +39 0187 1788906
Email: giuseppe.suaria@sp.ismar.cnr.it
Abstract
GLACE project will offer a valuable opportunity to contrast differences in plastic loads between East and West Greenland, as well as to sample the largely unknown waters off North Greenland. During the expedition, plastic items will be sampled across the entire size spectrum, in surface waters, in the water column, on the beaches and in the sea-ice, while during navigation the amount of floating macro plastics will be evaluated by direct observations coupled with surveys of marine predators, such as seabirds and marine mammals, providing additional information about the interactions of plastics with the Arctic marine fauna, and allowing us to ascertain whether marine predators aggregate in areas with high plastic concentrations.
Goals
he project has three main aims:
i) To determine the abundance and mass spectrum of plastic and other synthetic debris in the seas and stranded on beaches around Greenland. This includes identifying the types of microplastics and inferring the origins of macrolitter stranded on the shoreline.
ii) To ascertain whether the high density of micro-fibres reported from the Arctic Ocean is linked to a low proportion of plastic fibres at high latitudes (as detected during the ACE cruise in the Southern Ocean), possibly related to slow degradation rates of natural fibres in cold, high-latitude waters.
iii) To quantify the distribution and abundance of marine predators (seabirds and marine mammals) around Greenland in late summer, and to ascertain whether they aggregate in areas with high plastic concentrations (risk assessment, sensu Darmon et al. 2017).
Start date of activity
01/01/2019
Keywords
microplastiche, Groenlandia, plastic pollution
Last update: 12/03/2025