About This Project

Some scientists hypothesize that humans ingest as much as 5 grams (the size of a credit card) of [micro]plastic each week. Microplastics (MPs) are small pieces of plastics that are contaminating water bodies across the world. These MPs then enter our water sources and food items and become ingested and are harmful to human health and the environment. Our project seeks to determine the extent of microplastic contamination in rural streams.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

As an environmental engineer focussing on emerging contaminants, I am interested in continuing to work on microplastics (MPs). One theory is that MPs may be spread by precipitation. (Brahney, 2020) As noted earlier, MPs are prevalent throughout our environment in a variety of water bodies.

Each year environmental professionals review stream data to make decisions on streams (i.e. fish consumption advisories, waste load allocations, clean-up strategies, etc. ), however traditionally streams nearby to industrial and/or urban areas are prioritized. The data collected by our project will assist toxicologists, engineers, and regulators as they seek to better control the impact of MPs in our world.

What is the significance of this project?

Understanding how contaminants are transported through the environment is paramount in understanding how they impact the environment, as well as human health. The long-term impacts on human health are still being studied, but multiple studies report harmful impacts. Some of these MPs carry chemicals and harmful pollutants that are then ingested into our bodies via inhalation or ingestion.

What are the goals of the project?

We plan to sample headwater streams to determine if they are impacted by MPs even though they seem to be out of reach of human impacts.

The goals of our project are to sample 2-4 streams or unimpacted water bodies (depending on funding) in the Bankhead National Forrest. We will take approximately 6-12 discrete samples (jar samples) while paddling and several trawl net samples at 2-4 predetermined locations.

Following fieldwork, samples will be processed and analyzed and the results will be compared to other MP datasets from waterbodies with known human impacts. This will allow us to further understand if secondary MPs are indeed spread via precipitation.