Research into the prevalence of marine microplastics will be part of an initiative celebrating the scientific work of Charles Darwin.
The Darwin200 tall ship will conduct five research projects and stop at the same 50 ports that Charles Darwin visited when he was aboard HMS Beagle.
Ocean Plastic Survey
One of the projects will be an Ocean Plastic Survey, with the Darwin200 team trawling for plastic particles in the world’s oceans. Concentrations of microplastics will be studied, classified and recorded.
Online data feeds will allow anyone to see the concentration of pollution in the marine environment and a report will provide a detailed ocean plastic concentration map of the world.
Pollution solution
Darwin200 will also enable PhD students to explore solutions to pollution-related problems, either in practical application of existing technology, or through the development or testing of new ideas.
Projects will include testing Ocean Clean-up Arrays (which collect floating plastic waste, using solar power to filter and process it for storage for collection) and Row-Bots, which use microbial fuel cells to consume floating oil waste.
Visit the ship
The Darwin200 tall ship will be in Liverpool on 12/13 June.
Lots more information is available on the Darwin200 website.
