About This Project

Microplastics, which are particles less than 5 mm, have become a major concern in our oceans as we don’t know their true impact on marine life or on their transfer to humans through seafood. Microplastic can harm marine life physically or through leaching of chemicals. My study will create a baseline of microplastics in Savin Hill Cove, Boston Harbor. I am focusing on the abundance, size and composition of plastic along with plankton ingestion of microplastics.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The amount of plastic entering the ocean annually is around 8 million metric tons, with a range of 6,350-245,000 metric tons of present floating debris (Jambeck et al 2015). A recent study found that eight trillion microbeads were entering aquatic environments throughout the United States every day, eventually much of this plastic reaches the coastal ocean (Rochman et al. 2015). Research is in demand due to ecological, economic, and social impacts. Ecological impacts include organism health and the potential harm from ingestion and toxicity. Economic value can be affected from organism health decline, loss of fishing, and tourism. There are implications of potential human health risks with the consumption of organisms that have been exposed to plastics (Galgani et al. 2010).

What is the significance of this project?

This project will provide the first information on microplastic abundance and composition in Boston Harbor. Microplastic can be passed through the foodweb and potential transport other pollutants into marine life. Knowing the abundance, size and composition of the plastic in Boston Harbor can be used to educate people about the dangers of plastic pollution, used to inform policy makers and help to clean our oceans and planet and it can be used by scientist to monitor changes in the plastic pollution level in local waters and potentially contribute to global models on plastic pollution.

What are the goals of the project?

· Investigate abundance, composition, and distribution of microplastics in Savin Hill Cove within Boston Harbor.

· Investigate abundance of microplastics within dominant Zooplankton species

· Investigate what controls and affects abundance of microplastics such as tides, rain events, offshore storms