The role of the gut microbiome in the degradation of microplastics and persistent organic pollutants at different levels of the aquatic food web

The purpose of this PhD is to find microbial functional genes linked to microplastic and persistent organic pollutant (POP) degradation. The first part of this research will be carried out as part of the PlasticDaphnia project, of which the goal is to study the role of the Daphnia gut microbiome in microplastic degradation of both traditional and bioplastics in stagnant freshwater systems. The second part of this PhD wants to open up this research topic to coastal estuaries and will link the microplastic contamination to POP contamination at different levels of the marine food web, from invertebrates over vertebrates to marine mammals, to research the role of the gut microbiome in POP and microplastic degradation.