University of Plymouth team:
Funding: INSITE
University of Plymouth team:Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS (Project Lead), Dr Sarah Gall and Ami Northam
University of Plymouth team:
Globally, the offshore oil and gas industries have substantial infrastructure on and within the seabed, with plastics used extensively in pipelines, umbilicals and cables. At the end of an oil field’s economic life it is decommissioned, with some materials left on the seabed or buried in sediment and others removed. What remains unclear is whether the process of decommissioning and the subsequent presence of materials in the sediment could release plastic and microplastic debris into the marine environment.
Funded by INSITE, an independent science programme examining the effects of man-made structures on the ecology of the North Sea, this project aims to establish the extent to which polymeric material associated with decommissioned oil and gas infrastructure presents a source of marine pollution. It will consider the polymers associated with pipelines and umbilicals and use a risk assessment approach to determine the potential for harm.
Other INSITE funded research
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International Marine Litter Research Unit
Marine litter is a global environmental problem with items of debris now contaminating habitats from the poles to the equator, from the sea surface to the deep sea.
Furthering our understanding of litter on the environment and defining solutions
Furthering our understanding of litter on the environment and defining solutions
Find out more about the International Marine Litter Research Unit
International Marine Litter Research Unit: current projects
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Preventing Plastic Pollution (PPP)
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Lost at Sea: where are all the tyre particles? (TYRE-LOSS)
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Current and future effects of microplastics on marine ecosystems (the MINIMISE project)
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LimnoPlast
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BIO-PLASTIC-RISK
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PISCES: a systems analysis approach to reduce plastic waste in Indonesian societies
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National Highways: quantifying microplastic contribution from the Strategic Road Network
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