A Week of Microplastics

This week marks the end of the microplastics feeding experiment that I set up last Wednesday, and thanks to my wonderful research tech--who you will likely meet next week--I get to end the week feeling good about the progress we made. In total, we processed and extracted nematodes from 90 sediment microcosms, which contained 30,030,300 microplastics, and we will move on to the nematode picking phase next. This new phase will likely take a while, since we were unable to stain the nematodes with the usual stain, since it fluoresces in the same range as the microplastics. Therefore, we will be looking at nematodes that are translucent, and boy are they a challenge to find in samples. Thankfully, we have the time to work carefully through the samples, since the original sampling date was not pushed back too far.

It was odd to walk into the environmental chamber today and to see it like in the picture with no microcosms. I appreciate that the experiment has a short lifespan, but I wrestle with the fact that I spent so long setting up the research and it's already finished. This in comparison to the first part of my research which spanned 18 months. However, it is not the end of my time with the environmental chamber, as I plan to use the space for the final portion of my research, which I should start this summer. The final portion of my research is a larger and longer experiment, which combines results from the first parts of my dissertation into one comprehensive experiment to assess how microplastics are affecting whole ecosystems. I am already excited for this project, as I think it will challenge my skills and knowledge, especially since I will be combining multiple methods that I have only read about.

Next week I will be interviewing my research technician. He's been a valuable part of my team since the start of this project and based on his work in the lab he has a very bright future in the sciences. Stay tuned! If you have questions in the meantime, feel free to get in touch using any of the contact forms on the website here. There's even a contact me page that you can click on at the top.