Physicists from the city of Chennai - professor at Annamalai University Ramados Venkatachalapati and postdoc Guganatan Loganatan visited Sevastopol as part of an international project to study the problem of ocean pollution by microplastics - “Identification and modeling of microplastic transport in the coastal zone under effect of prevailing atmospheric circulation”. In 2018 the project received grant support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. Scientific teams from Russia and India take part in its implementation, and on the part of the Russian participants, it were Sevastopol scientists from Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FSBSI FRC MHI) and A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Marine Biological Research of Russian Academy of Sciences. The project manager is Andrei Bagaev, Senior Research Associate at Marine Hydrophysical Institute. When studying the patterns of microplastic pollution distribution in the coastal zone, the researchers carried out the selection and processing of water samples, identification of microplastic particles, as well as an analysis of the degree of their biofouling and physical destruction. The objects of the study were the Sevastopol Bay and the coast near the city of Chennai.

During the year, Sevastopol scientists carried out more than a dozen of coastal expeditions, during which microplastic samples were taken from the board of a small ship in the Sevastopol Bay and adjacent waters. Researchers managed to develop a fundamentally new methodological approach to assessing the quantity, size and shape of particles. The first reliable assessments of the microplastic particles concentration in the surface layer of coastal waters were obtained for the Black Sea (values varied within the range from 0.2 to 1.4 million particles under a square kilometer of the sea surface). Based on the obtained field data, hypotheses on the effect of wind and precipitation on the concentration of microplastics in the Sevastopol Bay were put forward. Model experiments showed that the change of water circulation regimes - from “locking” to “renewing”, and vice versa, controls the processes of microplastic accumulation in the bay and its removal beyond its limits.

“The project management is carried out taking into account the experience gained in the previous project when performing work on the Baltic Sea. A tool for collecting samples from the sea surface (manta-trawl) was manufactured. A numerical model of the Sevastopol Bay hydrodynamics with high resolution has been developed. Test calculations were performed.

We have to teach Indian colleagues the methods of sampling and processing samples of microplastics. We will also transfer the experience of numerical modeling of microplastics in the marine environment. The most difficult part is the joint work on microplastic samples to determine the degree of their aging and biofouling,” says Andrei Bagaev, senior research associate at Shelf Hydrophysics Department of Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The project participants are sure that the unique model experience of the Russian team will be useful to Indian colleagues in developing a model for the distribution and transfer of microplastics in the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean, and the use of sophisticated equipment in the Indian laboratory will allow us to assess the degree of destruction and age of the microplastics collected in the Black Sea.

During the visit of Indian colleagues to the Marine Hydrophysical Institute, a round table during which the guests were introduced to the main areas of MHI work was held, an excursion to the Institute’s Museum of History and a meeting with the Directorate of the Federal Research Center were organized. A seminar dedicated to the problem of microplastics took place in a Small conference room, at which professor Ramados Venkatachalapati made a presentation on the topic “Coastal pollution in the Chennai area: natural and anthropogenic factors”.