In celebration of World Oceans Day on 8 June 2020, at 17:30 CEST, JPI Oceans will host a special Facebook live session focusing on the impacts of microplastics in the oceanic environment, with guest speaker Dr. Aaron Beck from the HOTMIC project.
Plastic pollution poses a major threat to the health of ocean ecosystems and their inhabitants. Several aspects of microplastics pollution are however still largely unexplored. In fact, less than 10% of the total amount of plastics entering the oceans can currently be accounted for, likely due to the lack of quantification of smaller microplastics by modern techniques and export from the ocean surface. Such knowledge gaps pose considerable challenges to tackling microplastics pollution and keeping our seas and oceans healthy.
Exploring some of these issues and how to tackle them, the event will welcome Dr Aaron Beck from the newly launched HOTMIC project as guest speaker. Dr Beck is a research consortium member from the coordinating institution, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. The project, officially kicked off in 2020, will aim to close some of the above-mentioned knowledge gaps, and focus on the analysis of the horizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, transport and impacts of microplastics.
During the event, Dr Beck will present the HOTMIC project, its aims and expected outcomes, and will then proceed to answer the questions submitted in the Facebook live comments by the audience during a live Q&A session.