By Gabriella Placido, CELS Communications Fellow
“I’ve always lived by the sea and felt naturally drawn to it,” states Dr. Coleen Suckling, a marine biologist in the University of Rhode Island’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences (CELS). “I was especially fascinated as a child by marine invertebrates, which looked like weird and wonderful creatures.”
Dr. Suckling, who joined CELS in 2018 after moving here from the United Kingdom, has devoted her life’s work to address some of the larger challenges that the ocean faces. As marine plastic pollution worsens around the world, she seeks to understand some of its negative impacts on marine life through this emerging area of her research. Suckling stresses that microplastic pollution poses a potential threat to marine life and ecosystems, and any risk to the health of humans is currently unknown. As society becomes increasingly reliant on plastic for purposes ranging from clothing to automobiles, Suckling says the world has been unable to keep pace with the enormous amount of plastic waste. This excess has seeped into our landscapes and oceans, littering beaches with the potential to leach toxins and harm and kill wildlife.
Marine plastic pollution has become a topic of increasing concern as these consequences become more prevalent. Suckling states that the current understanding of how marine animals respond to microplastics is based on studies that use very high concentrations of plastics; much higher than what occurs in the natural marine environment. “My work analyzes more realistic impacts of plastic pollution by using concentrations that we actually find in our oceans,” she explains. “We really need this information so that we can best understand what level of pollution we’re really dealing with, and what impact it may or may not be having on marine organisms in order to determine how we can most effectively manage plastic waste.”
Suckling now teaches a microplastic pollution course where students learn about major global sources of plastic, their presence in the marine environment, impacts on organisms, and explore possible alternatives to plastic use and solutions. The students in her class take local field trips to Rhode Island beaches to sample for plastic pollution, extracting and characterizing collected plastics.
Suckling is passionate about educating young scientists and discovering solutions to some of these complex global issues through her research. After earning her Master of Science degree in oceanography from Bangor University in the UK, she gained experience working in seafood production in Scotland, UK, and Mozambique, Africa. These research technician positions sparked her interest in sustainable seafood production, which eventually led to her position as an assistant professor of sustainable aquaculture in CELS. “Sustainable aquaculture is about ensuring that we can maintain seafood production, an economy, and livelihoods with minimal environmental impact,” explains Suckling. “This is a complex challenge due to high demand for seafood and an ever-increasing population.”
Suckling’s research goals aim to discover better aquaculture methods, including new species that can be utilized commercially. Through her research, she has discovered the European green sea urchin as new species for the market in the UK and is now focusing on the Atlantic purple sea urchin, which could prove to be viable as seafood. Farming these local urchins, a species not previously considered as a seafood option would aid in reducing the pressure on overharvested seafood species, such as tuna and cod.
These echinoderms, marine invertebrates that include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea cucumbers, are some of the “weird and wonderful creatures” that Suckling admired as a child and may now play an important economic role in keeping the seafood industry afloat.
Her lab’s recent studies on sea urchins have determined that the species demonstrates some resiliency to stressors that many other seafood species do not respond to as well. These include tolerance of microplastic pollution and conditions caused by climate change, such as warming and ocean acidification. These findings have significant implications for sustainable aquaculture and the economy.
After working in marine biology around the world, Suckling continues her work at CELS to identify sustainable solutions to local and global marine issues. “This position has been an incredible opportunity to drive forward my independent line of research, and I am really impressed with the facilities that CELS has to offer,” she states. “CELS is highly multidisciplinary, much like my work, and has been great in allowing me to move forward with some ideas I’ve had through the new collaborative links I’ve been developing here.”