Scientists part of team that points to strong connection between climate change, plastics pollution

Date:
October 21, 2021
Source:
University of Rhode Island
Summary:
At the root of global climate change and the worldwide plastics
problem are two related carbon-based fuels -- oil and natural
gas. Not only are the two among the key drivers of climate change,
they are instrumental in the manufacturing of plastics. As storms
intensify and become more frequent, the movement of trash from
land to our oceans and, and vice versa, is only going to get worse.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== University of Rhode Island researchers Andrew Davies and Coleen Suckling
say that when a major hurricane churns up storm surges and heavy,
drenching rains, the storm washes trash from the land into our rivers
and coasts.


========================================================================== Among the items being transported are plastics, the ubiquitous consumer material that is found in many products and packaging. The problem
is that plastic takes an exceptionally long time to break down in the
natural environment. Some plastic trash ends up in harbors, estuaries
and on land. But much of it continues to be circulated throughout the
ocean and can settle onto the seafloor.

At the root of global climate change and the worldwide plastics pollution problem are two related carbon-based fuels -- oil and natural gas. Not
only are the two among the key drivers of climate change, they are
instrumental in the manufacturing of plastics. As storms intensify and
become more frequent, the movement of trash from land to our oceans,
and vice versa, is only going to get worse.

Now URI colleagues Davies, associate professor of biological sciences,
and Suckling, assistant professor of sustainable aquaculture, are
part of an international team of researchers including those from the Zoological Society London and Bangor University in Wales examining an
often overlooked phenomenon, the compounding effect of climate change
and plastics.

The team identified three significant ways in which the climate
crisis and plastics pollution are connected, with the first being how
plastic contributes to global greenhouse gases from production through disposal. The second demonstrates how extreme weather, like hurricanes
and floods, will disperse and worsen pollution. The third is the effect
that climate change and plastics pollution can have on marine species
and ecosystems that are vulnerable to both.

The study was led by Helen Ford, a Ph.D. student at Bangor University,
who worked with Davies and Suckling when they were at Bangor. The team published its results in a September article in the journal, Science
of the Total Environment. Professor Heather Koldewey, senior technical specialist at the Zoological Society London, was the lead author.



========================================================================== "Climate change is undoubtedly one of the most critical global threats
of our time," Koldewey said in a press announcement issued by the
zoological society.

"Plastic pollution is also having a global impact; from the top of
Mount Everest to the deepest parts of the ocean. Both are having a
detrimental effect on ocean biodiversity; with climate change heating
ocean temperatures and bleaching coral reefs, to plastic damaging
habitats and injuring or killing marine species. It's not a case of
which issue is most important, it's recognizing that the two crises are interconnected and require joint solutions." Davies said Ford organized
the international team that conducted the study.

"The premise of the paper addresses the fact that so many people view
plastics pollution and climate change as separate things when they are
not," Davies said. "They arise from the same principal material, oil.

"Climate change and plastic pollution have many similarities, including
how we need to address them. We need international collaborations to
address this problem, which essentially stems from the over-consumption of finite resources." A key issue, according to Suckling, is the transport
of plastics and microplastics over vast distances. She said that the
Japan earthquake and resulting tsunami of 2011 transported materials
all the way to Hawaii. The same thing happens with storms, she said.

Suckling had witnessed Storm Emma when she was in North Wales, which
ripped apart one of the marinas during 2018.



==========================================================================
"The whole area was flooded with floating white polystyrene particles. The storm had split apart the walkway floating platforms in this marina
and spilled out the polystyrene contents, posing a pollution risk,"
Suckling said. "This was at a site where an invasive species was being controlled, but plastics which spread from the site could increase the
risk of transporting this invasive species." Suckling said scientists
are researching the ability of plastics to transport invasive species
hundreds of miles.

"Since Hurricanes Henri and Ida, we have been looking at storm-induced transport of plastics," Davies said. "We sent our students out to collect samples from Narragansett Bay before and after the storms so we could
start seeing what the impact would be. We are working on that data now. We
want to see what the impact of these storms is on plastics in our oceans.

"The great thing about Narragansett Bay is it is so well studied. We
are building on 60 years of research at URI or even longer," Davies said.

Davies also said the state's expertise in this area, including its
universities and administrative agencies, make Rhode Island an ideal
place to do the work.

"We have a wide range of disciplines, a relatively small number of
stakeholders and a wide range of habitats," he said.

Since coming to URI, Suckling has published two papers on the impact of microplastics on marine life, particularly sea urchins. One of them,
which addresses how sea urchins with different diet habits respond to
eating microplastics, was published in the September 2020 online edition
of Science of the Total Environment.

"It's still a relatively new area of science, where we still have much
to understand. My work has shown that when we look at sea urchin species
with slightly different feeding habits, we observe species-specific
responses to ingesting microplastics," Suckling said.

This highlights that feeding habits could act as a potential indicator
for sensitivity to microplastic ingestion, which could be important
for impact assessments of plastic pollution and management strategies, according to Suckling.

In the meantime, Davies is leading a Rhode Island Sea Grant project
working with Suckling that is examining the links between climate change
and plastics.

"What no one has really done until now is quick-start the conversation
about plastics and climate change in a concerted way," Suckling said. "We expect over the next several years, a lot more research will be done in
the area." Suckling said if marine ecosystems or organisms are already
at the brink of what they can handle because of climate change, throwing additional problems at them could push them past their threshold of what
they can cope with.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Rhode_Island. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Helen V. Ford, Nia H. Jones, Andrew J. Davies, Brendan J. Godley,
Jenna
R. Jambeck, Imogen E. Napper, Coleen C. Suckling, Gareth
J. Williams, Lucy C. Woodall, Heather J. Koldewey. The
fundamental links between climate change and marine plastic
pollution. Science of The Total Environment, 2022; 806: 150392 DOI:
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150392 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211021175150.htm

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