The presence of trillions of plastic pieces
throughout the world oceans has been internationally recognized as one of the
most important threats for marine ecosystems. Although Antarctica has been
historically seen as a remote region physically isolated by the Antarctic Polar
Front, large plastic debris named macroplastics (> 1 cm ) have been reported in
the Southern
Ocean since the 1980s and, more recently, south of the Antarctic Convergence
(South Georgia Islands). Currently, there is a lack of information concerning
smaller debris as micro- (< 5
mm ) and nanoplastics (< 1 µm) resulting from
weathering and fragmentation processes. The PLANET project (PLastics in
ANtarctic EnvironmenT) launched in 2015 by the Italian National Antarctic
Research Programme (PNRA) is an international network among research groups
having continued experience in Antarctica (University of Siena and National
Research Council (Italy), University of São Paulo (Brazil), University of Tasmania (Australia), Instituto Antartico Chileno (Chile) and British
Antarctic Survey) to facilitate our understanding of the wide spread nature of micro and nanoplastics in
this remote environment.