PLASMA Project

The PLASMA project proposes to establish a detailed mapping of PM pollution in the bay of Marseille and to understand its spatio-temporal dynamics.

The project focuses on two areas: 

• remove the methodological barriers associated with the protocols for collecting and extracting PMs from water and sediment samples and identifying them (using high-throughput imaging techniques)
  
  
• to achieve a reliable and comparable quantification of PM in all compartments of the water column down to the sediments that will be exploitable by managers for environmental monitoring.
  
  

In addition, each axis will develop related objectives such as the extraction and characterisation of nanoplastics or the understanding of horizontal and vertical transport/transfer dynamics.

In addition, the project is based on the deployment of spatio-temporal monitoring in the bay of Marseille, an unprecedented action with regard to existing spot studies, which will make it possible to understand the behaviour of these pollutants on small spatial and temporal scales in coastal areas.

The PLASMA project is located upstream of a whole chain of studies, with the aim of providing tools for diagnosing the state of contamination by PMs in order to establish partnerships with public and private players on a territorial and national scale.