NAPTRAM - Plastiktransportmechanismen, Senken und Interaktionen mit Biota im Nordatlantik / NAPTRAM - North Atlantic plastic transport mechanisms, sinks, and interactions with biota, Cruise No. SO279, Emden (Germany) – Emden (Germany), 04.12.2020 – 05.01.2021

The coastal and open oceans represent a major, but yet unconstrained, sink for plastics. It is likely that plastic-biota interactions are a key driver for the fragmentation, aggregation, and vertical transport of plastic litter from surface waters to sedimentary sinks. Cruise SO279 conducted sampling to address core questions of microplastic distribution in the open ocean water column, biota, and sediments. Seven stations were sampled between the outer Bay of Biscay and the primary working area south of the Azores. Additional samples were collected from surface waters along the cruise track to link European coastal and shelf waters with the open ocean gyre. Microplastic samples coupled with geochemical tracer analyses will build a mechanistic understanding of MP transport and its biological impact reaching from coastal seas to the central gyre water column and sinks at the seabed. Furthermore, floating plastics were sampled for microbial community and genetic analyses to investigate potential enzymatic degradation pathways. Cruise SO279 served as the third cruise of a number of connected research cruises to build an understanding of the transport pathways of plastic and microplastic debris in the North Atlantic from the input through rivers and air across coastal seas into the accumulation spots in the North Atlantic gyre and the vertical export to its sink at the seabed. The cruise was an international effort as part of the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC (“HOrizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, Transport, and impact of MICroplastics”) and the BMBF funded project PLASTISEA (‘Harvesting the marine Plastisphere for novel cleaning concepts’), and formed a joint effort of HOTMIC and PLASTISEA researchers from a range of countries and institutes.