Technique Development: Quantification of Microplastics in River Water (2023)

Undergraduate: Riley Moran

Faculty Advisor: Brent McKee
Department: Earth, Marine, and Environmental Sciences

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Microplastics, generally defined as plastic particles less than 5mm in any dimension, are an emerging threat in several environmental compartments, including terrestrial, aerial, and marine environments. Riverine systems are particularly important, both as an environmental compartment, and as a critical link between terrestrial, freshwater, and oceanic systems. Quantifying microplastic pollution in rivers is essential to understand the dynamics of plastic pollution at local and global scales. However, diverse methods currently exist to quantify microplastics in riverine systems, making comparisons between different studies difficult. Further, many methods fail to address avenues for background contamination or microplastic loss to compromise their results. These three factors are the primary challenges facing the field. This work aims to synthesize existing, and develop novel, protocols to quantify microplastic in riverine systems, particularly when advanced equipment, such as clean rooms and spectral analysis, are not available. All samples were collected from the Haw River at Bynum.

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