Effects and tolerance limits

Pillar Leader: Alessio Gomiero, NORCE

Alessio Gomiero - is a Senior Researcher at NORCE and honorary associate researcher at CNR -IRBIM. His background is analytical chemistry, ecotoxicology, and environmental risk assessment. Since 2013, he has moved from the development of combined ecological-ecotoxicological and chemical oriented approaches assessing the oil and gas industry to the study of plastic pollution. He has contributed to the development of vibrational spectroscopy and thermo-analytical oriented analytical methods to characterize microplastics in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments as well as investigating the biological effects of microplastics on different model organisms. He is involved in several national and international research projects related to microplastic and is a member of expert groups in relation to marine pollution and plastic litter. He acts as NAMC scientific coordinator supporting the development of the Centre.

Andy Booth, Sintef

Dr Andy Booth is Research Manager of the Ocean Observation and Ecosystem group in the Climate and Environment Department at SINTEF Ocean, Norway. His research work focuses on the characterisation and environmental fate and effects of anthropogenic pollutants in natural systems, with a focus on emerging pollutants, nanomaterials and microplastics. He has participated in many national and international level research projects related to microplastic, including coordination of the EU JPI Oceans project 'PLASTOX' and the Norwegian Research Council-funded projects 'MICROFIBRE' and 'REVEAL'.

Julia Farkas, Sintef

Dr Julia Farkas is senior researcher in the Ocean Observation and Ecosystem group in the Climate and Environment Department at SINTEF Ocean, Norway. Her research work focuses on the transport and environmental fate and effects of anthropogenic contaminants, especially particles and elements. In current projects she studies the fate and effects of nanomaterials, rare earth elements (REE) and mine tailings. Farkas has participated in several research projects related to particulate (plastic) pollutants, including 'DiTail', 'NANOMARINE', 'MICROLEACH' and 'REVEAL'.

Jutta Dierkes, University of Bergen

Jutta’s academic training was in human nutrition science, supplemented by training in clinical nutrition. Since 2010, I am professor for Clinical nutrition at the University of Bergen. One of my major interests are the health effects of seafood, both nutrients but also pollutants. First, fish is a major dietary source of vitamin D, and I have been interested in the health effects of vitamin D both in healthy populations and in patients with cardiovascular disease. However, seafood consumption is threatened by pollution, and I am especially interested in the pollution with micro- and nanoplastics. Is the pollution with microplastics a health threat for humans? We received funding from the University of Bergen for investigating this in a rat model, together with colleagues from environmental toxicology and the Institute of Marine Research.

Martin Wagner, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Martin Wagner, Ass. Professor in environmental toxicology, NTNU Norway. He has been researching endocrine disrupting chemicals in plastic food packaging, water quality assessment and freshwater microplastics. Main research interest now is in the impacts of plastics and plastics-associated chemicals on freshwater ecosystems and human health. Wagner Lab research group work at the interface of ecology, toxicology, and chemistry combining in vitro, in vivo, and mass spectrometry approaches. As world-leading expert on the societal and environmental impacts of plastics, he is consulting high-level policymakers as UN, EC, World Bank and is frequently featured by international media www.biotox.de

Matthew Cole, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Dr Matthew Cole is a senior marine ecologist and ecotoxicologist based at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. His research centres upon how human activity and pollution can impact upon the natural environment. Since 2010, Matthew’s research has focussed upon better understanding the risks plastic pollution poses to marine ecosystems. His pioneering research was the first to identify the negative impact microplastics can have upon marine zooplankton and marine ecological processes. Matthew is currently spearheading projects investigating the effects of antifouling paint particles, biodegradable plastics and tyre-wear particles on coastal and estuarine ecosystems, and exploring nature based solutions to microplastic pollution.

Anita Solhaug, Norwegian Veterinary Institute

Dr. Anita Solhaug is a senior Scientist at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. She is a toxicologist, with the main focus on cellular in vitro systems and natural toxins. She has long experience with both mammalian and fish cell cultures; establishment, characterisation and effect studies. She is currently leading the Gillmodel project (RCN), with the aim to characterize the new epithelial gill cell line (ASG-10) as an in vitro model system to study environmental stressors (including microplastics).

Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, Norwegian Veterinary Institute

Dr. Gunnar Sundstøl Eriksen, is a Senior scientist at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (NVI). With a PhD in animal science/toxicology from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. He has a long experience food toxicology and has a special interest in characterising the modes-of-action of toxicological compounds in feed and food. He has been a long-term member of the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and has been involved in risk assessments for European Food Safety Authority. He has also experience form the Norwegian Food Control Authority.

Anne-Berit Olsen, Norwegian Veterinary Institute

Tânia Cristina Gomes, Norwegian Institute for Water Research

Dr. Gomes is a Key Researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research. She has over 15 years of experience in the area of ecotoxicology, focusing on the bioavailability and effects of emerging pollutants at different levels of biological organization, development of methods for investigating molecular- and mechanism-specific toxicity and regulatory testing. She is currently leading the MicroLEACH project on the long-term effects of plastics and additive chemicals on marine organisms, as well as leading WPs on the REVEAL and MicroOPT projects also looking at the bioavailability, accumulation and impacts of plastic particles in aquatic species. Within NAMC she will be involved on Pillar 4.

Mark E Hahn, WHOI

Dr. Mark Hahn is a Senior Scientist in the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a Project Leader in the Woods Hole Center for Oceans and Human Health. He received his PhD in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) School of Medicine. At WHOI since 1987, Dr. Hahn has studied molecular mechanisms of developmental toxicity and adaptation following exposure to marine pollutants and has authored roughly 175 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Hahn was on the organizing committee of the 2020 U.S. National Academy of Sciences workshop on the Environmental Health Effects of Microplastics and currently leads WHOI’s Marine Microplastics Initiative (https://microplastics.whoi.edu).

Eva Ramirez-Llodra, REV Ocean

Eva is the Science Coordinator at REV Ocean. She is benthic marine ecologist with 20 years of research experience in deep-sea ecosystems. Her main areas of interest are deep-sea benthic biodiversity and early life-history processes, with a particular focus on faunal and ecosystem responses to human impacts, including plastic pollution. Eva has a wide expertise in international project management, including leading roles in the Census of Marine Life programme, the International Network for Scientific Investigations of Deep-Sea Ecosystem (INDEEP), the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) and in IUCN expert commissions. She has an established international network of contacts within science and other stakeholders and contributes to facilitating science communication to end users, including policy makers, NGOs and society.

Alex Rogers, REV Ocean

Alex is a marine ecologist who is interested in how biodiversity is distributed in the ocean, especially in the deep sea and on tropical coral reefs. He is also interested in human impacts on the ocean and how to manage human activities to mitigate or reduce degradation of marine ecosystems. His work has taken him to the Atlantic, Indian and Southern Oceans and to the Caribbean investigating coral reef ecosystems, seamounts and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Alex has worked with governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations in publicising human impacts, especially those from deep-sea fishing and climate change, and on the development of policy solutions to such problems. He is Scientific Director of REV Ocean a foundation aimed at finding solutions to problems affecting the ocean.