Microplastics, ranging from 1 µm to 5 mm, are a major threat to the oceans. They originate, for example, from everyday products (cosmetics, tires, poorly managed waste) and are transported in large quantities to the oceans, where they poison and injure marine organisms.

The MarILCA project aims to measure their impacts on ecosystems within life cycle assessments. However, for now, the effects of microplastics on the marine carbon cycle are not yet taken into account.

The main goal of this project is to quantify the impact of microplastics on carbon fluxes in the ocean, in order to expand the existing MarILCA framework. This goal is divided into three sub-objectives:

• SO1: Identify the parts of the oceanic carbon cycle affected by microplastic emissions, as well as the biophysical mechanisms involved and any knowledge gaps.
• SO2: Quantify disruptions in carbon sequestration fluxes.
• SO3: Integrate the resulting characterization factors into the existing MarILCA framework.