About This Project

Millions of tons of plastics enter our ocean each year, eventually breaking down into microplastics (MPs) that propagate throughout ecosystems. MP presence needs to be further characterized to assess the health risks posed by plastic pollution. My research proposes a low-cost detection system that uses the fluorescent dye Nile Red and a Raspberry Pi camera to image particles and classify their nature (plastic vs organic) and polymer type (if plastic).

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Microplastics (MPs) have been found within the digestive tracts of marine life ranging from zooplankton to whales. Over 75% of the accumulated plastic in the ocean is reported to come from waste in countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.

MP detection is difficult due to the size and polymer variance of particles. Analysis typically requires costly instrumentation, which poses a barrier to coastal communities and citizen science. During my master of science at MIT, I built a low-cost plastic detection system based on fluorescent tagging with Nile Red, a dye that preferentially binds to plastics, and subsequent sample imaging with a Raspberry Pi. I'm raising research funds to test the prototype in the field during a research fellowship in Mauritius, located on the Indian Ocean.

What is the significance of this project?

Mauritius, an East African island on the Indian Ocean, harbors a diverse array of wildlife, 50% of which are endemic. Despite the serious health threat to the local ecosystem, plastic remains largely uncharacterized in Mauritius.

We know little about how MPs accumulate, concentrate, and affect marine wildlife across connected marine ecosystems. The field deployment of my project is focused on quantifying MPs in coral lagoons, mangrove forests, and seagrass beds, keystone habitats that harbor vulnerable nursing areas, filter pollutants from the water, and prevent coastal erosion.

This system is accessible to citizen scientists and may identify locations where MPs congregate and pose the most harm to humans and wildlife.

What are the goals of the project?

The engineering goals are to transform a lab benchtop prototype into a field-portable system capable of analyzing samples in real-time. Currently, the samples are vacuum-filtered using a motorized pump and then imaged and analyzed using a Raspberry Pi. With funding, the system will be repackaged into a waterproof case and reworked to operate without a power outlet.

The science goals for this project are to use low-cost equipment to successfully document plastic concentration levels in different marine ecosystems in Mauritius. This means the system should tag and image microplastics, and I will use an FTIR instrument to verify the system accuracy. Success is defined as a system accuracy of ~85 to 90%.