Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PlasticUnderground (Integrated Cross-Sectoral Solutions to Micro- and Nanoplastic Pollution in Soil and Groundwater Ecosystems)
Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-11-30
Recent evidence of increasing accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics (MnP) in soils and groundwater raises severe concerns by agricultural and water industries, food manufacturers, regulators, environmental interest groups and citizens. Private and public sectors require detailed understanding of environmental and public health risks posed by MnP in soils and groundwater. The PlasticUnderground Doctoral Network creates supra-disciplinary, inter-sectoral capacity for analyzing the fate, transport and impacts of MnP in soils and groundwater, to develop solutions for reducing their environmental and public health risks, and for supporting the EC’s circular plastic economy strategy. The central aim of the PlasticUnderground Doctoral Network is to deliver international scientific excellence through a holistic research and training network aimed at providing solutions to the emerging crisis of MnP pollution in subsurface ecosystems, by integrating knowledge across traditional discipline boundaries to benefit the public and private sectors. The supra-disciplinary research programme includes unique training opportunities for a cohort of 10 Doctoral Candidates (DCs), plus one funded through ETHZ (CH) and three funded through UoB, RU and Polymateria (UK) in environmental and social sciences, ecotoxicology, soil science and aquatic ecology, analytical chemistry, agronomy, data science and numerical modelling as well as responsible innovation and standardization for use in regulatory decision making and risk assessment. The integrated training programme will prepare the DCs with skills that are urgently required in agricultural, water, chemical, and manufacturing industries, environmental and regulatory agencies, academia, and the public sector. The program also includes training provisions by key stakeholders that will directly benefit from the training within the Network.
The first achievement of the PlasticUnderground DN was the recruitment of all 14 Doctoral Candidates and their enrolment into their respective PhD programs, thus creating a multidisciplinary network of top-level researchers.
The informative and interactive PlasticUnderground Website (https://www.plasticunderground.org/(opens in new window)) provides all relevant project information and it is continuously updated. The website along with social networking, will facilitate the sharing of information, training materials, data and analysis tools. The PlasticUnderground Summer School, held in Pisa (Italy) from October 2nd to 6th, 2023, was the first training activity and brought together all the DCs and their supervisors, as well as numerous researchers. The Summer School was an important moment in the launch of the Doctoral Network, creating numerous connections between DCs, and initiating fruitful discussions on the construction of the two International Joint Experiments. Ten Advanced Training Courses (ATC) have been designed to focus on scientific and complementary skills, and on the Innovation Pipeline; transferring science into management. Additionally, these training course provide regulatory and industry practice, and include the combination of lectures, project work, practical work, and field work. Seven of these 10 ATCs have taken place, and the remaining three will take place in 2025. The International Joint Experiments (IJE) are an opportunity for the DCs to build multidisciplinary experiments. The first IJE was conducted from September to November 2025 at the University of Birmingham. The DCs constructed the hypotheses, designed the experiments, and carried out the manipulations over a 2-month period at the EcoLab Artificial Environmental Testing Facility. At this state-of-the-art facility, the DCs acquired knowledge in ecology, modelling, fluid mechanics, particle tracking, MnP analysis and advanced characterization were combined to assess microplastic transport dynamics in sediments and soils. The second IJE is in the development phase, and will take place in the Summer of 2025 in Montenegro.
The informative and interactive PlasticUnderground Website (https://www.plasticunderground.org/(opens in new window)) provides all relevant project information and it is continuously updated. The website along with social networking, will facilitate the sharing of information, training materials, data and analysis tools. The PlasticUnderground Summer School, held in Pisa (Italy) from October 2nd to 6th, 2023, was the first training activity and brought together all the DCs and their supervisors, as well as numerous researchers. The Summer School was an important moment in the launch of the Doctoral Network, creating numerous connections between DCs, and initiating fruitful discussions on the construction of the two International Joint Experiments. Ten Advanced Training Courses (ATC) have been designed to focus on scientific and complementary skills, and on the Innovation Pipeline; transferring science into management. Additionally, these training course provide regulatory and industry practice, and include the combination of lectures, project work, practical work, and field work. Seven of these 10 ATCs have taken place, and the remaining three will take place in 2025. The International Joint Experiments (IJE) are an opportunity for the DCs to build multidisciplinary experiments. The first IJE was conducted from September to November 2025 at the University of Birmingham. The DCs constructed the hypotheses, designed the experiments, and carried out the manipulations over a 2-month period at the EcoLab Artificial Environmental Testing Facility. At this state-of-the-art facility, the DCs acquired knowledge in ecology, modelling, fluid mechanics, particle tracking, MnP analysis and advanced characterization were combined to assess microplastic transport dynamics in sediments and soils. The second IJE is in the development phase, and will take place in the Summer of 2025 in Montenegro.
The network has created since its launch a stimulating environment for inter-sectoral research training, offering doctoral candidates a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience in various aspects of environmental science. The emphasis on geographical and sectoral mobility enhances the competitiveness of DCs and prepares them for successful careers in research, environmental regulation, consultancy, and related industries. The involvement of Beneficiaries from the non-academic sector provides the DCs with invaluable insight into commercial operations, offering first-hand experience on how to translate scientific innovations into practice. In addition, the research work being carried out by the DCs will lead to major scientific advances in the fate and transfer of MnPs in groundwater, important for future regulations on the good status of groundwater bodies. This Project also offers the potential to analyze the relationship between MPs and the physical structure of soil, including its porosity. Additionally, an ex-situ experimental study was conducted to determine the influence of Chironomus riparius larvae on the vertical transport of MPs in lentic systems. Using polyethylene MPs at a concentration ten times higher than environmentally relevant levels (80 g/m²), the research examined how bioturbation activity impacted MP dispersion within the sediment. The findings revealed that spherical MPs were actively transferred vertically due to the larvae's burrowing and sediment-mixing behaviour. Additionally, the presence of MPs influenced the intensity of bioturbation activity over time. These results highlight the significant role of bioturbators in shaping the transport and accumulation of MPs in freshwater ecosystems, providing valuable insights into the interaction between ecosystem engineers and plastic pollution. Development and application of advanced Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to predict the environmental fate and associated risks of three widely used plastic types — polypropylene (PP), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) — within marine ecosystems was achieved. To facilitate this analysis, the MicroPlasticDegradation web application has been developed as a user-friendly tool to simulate the environmental fate and behaviour of MPs across diverse ecological compartments (https://enaloscloud.novamechanics.com/EnalosWebApps/MicroPlasticFate/(opens in new window)). This application is integrated with the Isalos Analytics Platform (https://isalos.novamechanics.com/(opens in new window)) enabling advanced risk assessments powered by robust ML/AI algorithms and workflows. The MicroPlasticDegradation application replicates the functionality of the SimpleBox4Plastic (SB4P) model, providing an intuitive interface for modelling the transport and fate of MPs.