Cristina Pedà

My research activity focuses on the study of different aspects of marine litter pollution with particular attention to the impacts of plastic on the marine ecosystems and biodiversity. During my PhD, I investigated the effects of microplastics ingestion in a commercially valuable species under controlled laboratory conditions. Then, I continued to study the plastic ingestion phenomenon in teleost and cartilaginous fish and in cephalopod molluscs as well as the potential transfer of plastics along the trophic web. To explore the issue of marine litter pollution, I also studied the presence of litter in marine different compartments and in particular its composition and abundance on the seafloor and on the sea surface, as well as the interaction between litter and marine organisms. In this view, part of my research activity is focused on the application and validation of methodologies for the microplastics extraction from different marine matrices (sediment, seawater, and biota) and polymer’s identification by Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). In the future, I would like to investigate the potential effects of plastics in sensitive habitats and also in underexplored organisms.

April 2024