The Governing Council of the University of Toronto

Purpose

Nanoplastics (NPs) measure 0.001 to 1 µm, or 1-1000 nm and are mainly formed from environmental microplastics (MPs) measuring 1-5000 µm as a result of physical, chemical and biological fragmentation processes. However, nanoplastics characterization in a natural ecosystem, abundance and toxicity represent an important technical challenge due to their complexity and most research being done on microplastics. Building on a multi-year project to understand the effects of microplastics on a whole boreal lake ecosystem exposed to microplastics for three years, the Project will develop methods to quantify and characterize nanoplastics in the water column of a boreal lake to monitor the in-situ formation and fate of nanoplastics in this lake. The data obtained should provide crucial information to demonstrate the formation of nanoplastics from microplastics under natural conditions and will help to understand the environmental effects and fate of microplastic and nanoplastic particles in the aquatic environment.