Microplastics in the Amazon: current knowledge and new contributions

Once considered a pristine environment, the amazon biome now houses the second most polluting river in the world. The disordered urbanization and lack of environmental management have led the Amazon region to a scenario of high environmental pressure, especially in relation to Brazilian Amazon, that is now the most pressured region, not only in the country, but also in relation to other countries in the Amazon biome. Given the uniqueness of this ecosystem and its enormous importance for humanity, it is essential to improve the knowledge about plastic pollution in the region. However, scientific data about microplastic (MP) impact on the Amazon ecosystem is still scarce, and so far, no synthesis of the actual knowledge has been published. Therefore, the aim of this project is to systematically review the current literature about microplastic pollution in the Amazon ecosystem, presenting a synthesis of the knowledge and exposing the main limitations and challenges in sampling and processing microplastics in the region. In addition, new contributions to the scientific knowledge on microplastics contamination of the Amazon biota will be produced, including the evaluation of selected invertebrate taxa as potential biomonitor of microplastic contamination for the region and the development of a non-invasive method to extract MPs from the gastrointestinal tract of Bunodosoma cangicum, the most common sea anemone on the Amazon coast and the promising monitoring species for plastic pollution at the Brazilian coast.