ERC Advanced Grant awarded for nanoplastics research

Biochemist Helge Niemann, a senior research leader at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and professor for Microbial and Isotope Biogeochemistry at Utrecht University, receives an ERC Advanced Grant of € 3.5 million for research into the ocean microbe-nanoplastic interactions and nanoplastic inventories. Niemann is intrigued by the transformation of important but ‘unconventional’ carbon substrates such as plastic, methane and oil, and their fate in aquatic (microbial) food web structures. An important part of these carbon substrates is formed by the nanoplastics. These plastic litter fragments with dimensions smaller than 1μm were only recently discovered in the marine realm. Due to their colloidal nature, nanoplastics may be dispersed throughout the ocean, potentially affecting all marine life.

However, their minuscule size has made it virtually impossible to measure their distribution or determine if microbes can degrade nanoplastics, thus influencing their fate in the ocean. Innovative approaches developed by Niemann’s team have now made this possible for the first time. “Using an ultrasensitive mass spectrometry method, our preliminary results revealed substantial concentrations of various nanoplastic types in both surface waters and the deep sea, suggesting that nanoplastics could constitute an important part of the ocean’s plastic budget,” says Niemann.

The NanoMare project will profoundly enhance our understanding of ocean microbe-nanoplastic interactions and nanoplastic inventories.

Nanoplastics degradation

Simultaneously, results from a novel stable isotope assay uncovered the previously unknown ability of marine microbes to degrade nanoplastics, indicating that microbes play a crucial role in determining the fate of these particles in the ocean. However, marine microbes and the ecosystem services they support could also be negatively impacted by nanoplastics. Building on their innovative approaches, Niemann and his team will conduct in situ experiments across surface and deep sea environments, complemented by investigations under laboratory conditions.

Prevalence and distribution

“Through the NanoMare project, we will be the first to provide fundamentally new insights into nanoplastic degradation kinetics, nanoplastic-degrading microbes (including degradation pathways and genes), impacts of nanoplastics on the ocean’s microbiome, and the global prevalence and distribution of nanoplastics and their degradation products in the sea,” says Niemann. “The NanoMare project will profoundly enhance our understanding of ocean microbe-nanoplastic interactions and nanoplastic inventories, with substantial implications for marine microbiology and other ocean science disciplines. Beyond the ocean, the results will also be important for the fields of hydrology and atmospheric physics.”