Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 351 Boulevard Saint-Joseph, Gatineau, Quebec J8Y 3Z5, Canada.
Department of Geography, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador A1B 3X9, Canada.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Sep 1;733:139381. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139381. Epub 2020 May 13.
Plastic pollution in the oceans is a priority environmental issue. The recent increase in research on the topic, coupled with growing public awareness, has catalyzed policymakers around the world to identify and implement solutions that minimize the harm caused by plastic pollution. To aid and coordinate these efforts, we surveyed experts with scientific experience identified through their peer-reviewed publications. We asked experts about the most pressing research questions relating to how biota interact with plastic pollution that in turn can inform policy decisions and research agendas to best contribute to understanding and reducing the harm of plastic pollution to biota. We used a modified Horizon Scan method that first used a subgroup of experts to generate 46 research questions on aquatic biota and plastics, and then conducted an online survey of researchers globally to prioritize questions in terms of their importance to inform policy development. One hundred and fifteen experts from 29 countries ranked research questions in six themes. The questions were ranked by urgency, indicating which research should be addressed immediately, which can be addressed later, and which are of limited relevance to inform action on plastics as an environmental pollutant. We found that questions relating to the following four themes were the most commonly top-ranked research priorities: (i) sources, circulation and distribution of plastics, (ii) type of harm from plastics, (iii) detection of ingested plastics and the associated problems, and (iv) related economies and policy to ingested plastics. While there are many research questions on the topic of impacts of plastic pollution on biota that could be funded and investigated, our results focus collective priorities in terms of research that experts believe will inform effective policy and on-the-ground conservation.
海洋中的塑料污染是一个优先的环境问题。最近对该主题的研究增加，加上公众意识的提高，促使世界各地的政策制定者确定并实施解决方案，以最大限度地减少塑料污染造成的危害。为了帮助和协调这些努力，我们调查了通过同行评议出版物确定的具有科学经验的专家。我们询问了专家们与生物群与塑料污染相互作用有关的最紧迫的研究问题，这些问题反过来可以为政策决策和研究议程提供信息，以最佳地促进对塑料污染对生物群的危害的理解和减少。我们使用了一种经过修改的地平线扫描方法，首先使用一组专家生成了 46 个关于水生生物群和塑料的研究问题，然后对全球研究人员进行了在线调查，根据对政策制定的重要性对问题进行优先排序。来自 29 个国家的 115 名专家对六个主题的研究问题进行了排名。这些问题按紧迫性进行排名，表明哪些研究应立即解决，哪些可以稍后解决，以及哪些对告知作为环境污染物的塑料行动的相关性有限。我们发现，与以下四个主题相关的问题是最常被列为优先研究重点的问题：(i) 塑料的来源、循环和分布，(ii) 塑料造成的危害类型，(iii) 摄入塑料的检测及其相关问题，以及 (iv) 相关经济和政策。虽然有许多关于塑料污染对生物群影响的研究问题可以得到资助和调查，但我们的研究结果侧重于专家认为将为有效政策和实地保护提供信息的研究的集体重点。
