CHALLENGE: Marine debris 2022

During the 2021-2022 Antarctic campaign, various marine invertebrates were collected in the BAE Livingston for the study of microplastics in benthic invertebrates.
For the study of the microlitter contained by benthic animals we sampled: 6 specimens of Dendrilla antarctica, 10 of Cnemidocarpa verrucosa, 20 of Molgula pedunculata, 16 of Yoldia eigthsii, 20 of Limopsis lilliei 20 from Synoicum adareanum and 15 from Thracia meridionalis those were collected through diving, trawling and Van Veen dredger. Once collected, they were stored in zip bags at -20ºC.
Also, 20 organisms of each of these species: Yoldia eightsii, Limopsis lilliei, Molgula pedunculata, Cnemidocarpa verrucosa and Isodyctia bentartii, collected via diving, Van Veen dredge and trawl dredge were used for microdebris exposure experiments. In this case, the organisms were moved to aquariums where they were exposed to plastic for 48 hours and were then kept at -20ºC.
Moreover, we studied the marine debris (macro, meso and micro) of the principal reservoirs: surface water and sediments. During the 2021-2022 Antarctic campaign our project sampled 12 beaches for macro and microplastics, we did 18 Manta trawl transects and also 7 samples of seabed sediments were taken by diving or Van Veen dredge.
Furthermore, we carried an experiment to asses the growth and colonization of microplastics by Antarctic marine microorganisms.