Project description
Studying soil health in the plastic age
Soil is a finite resource that is key to food security and our sustainable future. Unfortunately, soils are a sink for plastic. The impact of microplastics in soils is a growing concern, but little is known about the impact of plastic on soil health. The EU-funded SoPla_Fate project will take a multidisciplinary approach to fill this knowledge gap. It will study the extent of plastic contamination in agricultural soils and the fate of plastic and its impact on soil processes. The project will start by quantifying the polymer distribution and concentration in agricultural soils, and the next step will be to fingerprint, screen and identify the plastic additives and their leaching and partitioning behaviour.
Objective
Soil provides us with 98.8% of our food and by 2050 we need to increase the production by 70%; yet our soils are degrading. Soils were recently recognised as a sink for plastic. This is particularly of concern for agricultural soil health due to extensive and increasing plastic use in farming such as plastic mulching and unintentional plastic introduction through biosolid applications. Based on plastic persistence, widespread use and recent results in soil eco toxicology and eco system effects, plastic has been proposed as driver of global change. However, critical data to clarify the impact of plastic on soil health is currently lacking. This project employs a multidisciplinary approach to determine the extent of plastic contamination in agricultural soils as well as the fate of plastic and its impact on soil processes while providing training and knowledge gain that will be transferred to the EU and further exploited.
SoPla_Fate will address the current knowledge lack by (1) quantifying the polymer distribution and concentration in different agricultural soils. Polymer properties including size, shape and surface area will be quantified for representative samples. (2) State-of-the-art analytical instruments and workflows will be employed for the fingerprinting, screening and identification of plastic additives. (3) The workflows will further be employed to determine the leaching and partitioning behaviour of additives from plastic and aged plastic into the soil environment. (4) The impact of different plastic aspects such as polymer type, additive composition and aging induced changes to polymers and plastic on vital soil processes will be quantified. The outcomes from SoPla_Fate will advance our assessment of potential soil health impairment though plastic pollution highlighting the importance of an integrated multidisciplinary research connecting plastic fate in soil with its impact.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business economics microeconomics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences soil sciences edaphology
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- medical and health sciences basic medicine toxicology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
14195 Berlin
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.