An eleven-member expedition team is currently underway in the North Atlantic with the Alfred Wegener Institute's research vessel Heincke.
As part of the JPI-O project FACTS (Fluxes and fate of microplastics in northern European waters), they are investigating the sources, transport, occurrence and effects of small microplastics in the northern oceans. FACTS addresses questions of the transport of microplastics from the temperate waters of the southern North Sea to the Arctic waters of the Barents Sea. The team investigates the physical distribution of microplastics on different spatial and temporal scales, but also the vertical transport in the water column. In total, more than 50 experts from 15 partner institutions from seven countries are involved in FACTS. Current reports from the expedition are available on twitter.