PAPILLONS is an EU Horizon2020 funded project on micro and nano-plastics (MNP) resulting from the use of agricultural plastics in soil.
PAPILLONS maps the occurrence of microplastics in European agricultural soils, examines the transportation of micro and nano-plastics from the soil to organisms and the aquatic environment, investigates the effects of micro and nano-plastics on the soil, soil organisms and ecosystem services, and evaluates the ecological, social and economic sustainability of agricultural plastics. PAPILLONS delivers information for farmers, industries, regulators and policy makers to enhance the safety and sustainability in the use of agricultural plastics.
PAPILLONS is a multidisciplinary project gathering experts in agronomy, ecology, chemistry, engineering, economics and social sciences from 20 different institutions around Europe. The project is coordinated by Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA, Norway). Finland is represented in PAPILLONS by Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) and Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke).
All partners:
Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA, Norway), Agricultural University of Athens (Greece), Finnish Environment Institute (Syke, Finland), Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke, Finland), Farm Europe (European Union), Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), RECETOX, Masaryk University (Czech Republic), IMDEA Water (Spain), University of Bayreuth (Germany), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU, The Netherlands), The Italian National Research Council (CNR, Italy), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), The University of Bonn (Germany), The University of Bari Aldo Moro (UNIBA, Italy), Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR, Poland), Leiden University (The Netherlands), University of Koblenz and Landau (UKL, Germany), Nanjing University (China), Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (UCT, Czech Republic)
PAPILLONS is organized into six work packages:
- MNP properties and sources to farm soil
- Behaviour and transport
- Ecological effects
- Production and sustainability impacts
- Communication, dissemination, exploitation
- Project Management
Finnish Environment Institute is leading the work package 3 and participating in the work packages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. Finnish Environment Institute is contributing to the studies on the behaviour, transport and ecological effects of MNPs in field surveys, field experiments and ecotoxicological studies in laboratory (work packages 2 and 3). Finnish Environment Institute also contributes the microplastic analytics and compiling data on plastic usage in agricultural production in work package 1.
Further information:
- PAPILLONS homepage: https://www.papillons-h2020.eu/
- PAPILLONS project manager at the Finnish Environment Institute: Senior research scientist Salla Selonen, firstname.lastname@syke.fi