Everything eventually ends up in the ocean...


Hello! My name is Kassandra Dudek and I'm a PhD student at Arizona State University studying environmental life science. The environment of interest is no big deal and only covers 71% of our planet, contains 97% of our water, and 99% of living space, and that is of course the ocean (Yes, I study the ocean while living in the desert).

I, along with my lab mate, good friend, and sanity supervisor Bianca Cruz, will be traveling to Bocas del Toro, Panama to study microplastics, and our tears journey shall be documented here.




So a little backstory...



Microplastics, plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, are emerging marine pollutants. Because of their abundance in almost every marine habitat around the globe and their long residence time, it is of significance to understand their impact on marine habitats and the life that resides there. Microplastics are readily ingested by high-level marine biota and can also serve as a pelagic habitat for microorganisms, potentially carrying fouling microbial communities for long distances and posing a risk to local human health, especially in highly-contaminated regions. In Panama, specifically that of Bocas del Toro, the waste management appears to have failed to keep pace with the booming tourism, and this fact coupled with the catch-basin geography of Panama exacerbates the issue. In this research, we propose to investigate how microplastic size and composition influences the structure of their associated microbial communities.

Prior work has shown that phytoplankton aggregates can serve as a vessel for the transportation of microplastics from surface layers to depth, and that bacteria attached to microplastic particles may contribute to their degradation. Therefore, we will investigate how microplastic-associated microbial communities may, in turn, affect the degradation and removal of microplastics from surface waters, which will provide significant knowledge for the future assessment of potential microplastic mitigation and reduction methods.
Microplastic particles, courtesy of Oregon State University 

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