What are Microplastics?
What are microplastics?Microplastics are pieces of plastic particles, made up of many kinds of polymers that are characterized as <5mm and come in various shapes, forms, and colors. They have various impacts within the environment, including bioaccumulation and inherent toxicity due to pollutant absorption, and harm to wildlife.
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Where do they come from?Microplastics come from multiple sources, mostly from larger plastics, clothing, nurdles (plastic purposely made to be microplastics), and personal hygiene products. Many microplastics come from the degradation of larger plastics through physical abrasion and photo-degradation
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How do we fix it?Because there are so many sources of microplastics, there are many mitigation strategies that can be taken to reduce the amount of plastic that is produced, such as: removing them from products, replacing them with alternatives, improve contamination and filtration, technological advances, improve waste management and much more.
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This is a ted talk by Sarah Dudas, who explains the multiple aspects of microplastics and thoroughly covers how they are found in every part of our lives.
Toolik Field Station | Winter Precipitation Manipulation ExperimentOver the past 14 years, a winter precipitation experiment located at the Toolik Research Field Station in Alaska has been sampled 3 times, in 2008, 2012, and again in 2016. Using this data, plus our resampling that took place the summer of 2022, we can perform a statistically sound regression analysis and further understand not only the soil carbon dynamics, but also quantify the rate of carbon accumulation. We also plan to perform a SOC chemical composition analysis using FT-IR and Mass spectroscopy to understand the response of the below-ground communities and their ecological connection to microplastics.
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