{"id":29078,"date":"2019-03-05T07:40:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T12:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=29078"},"modified":"2019-03-05T07:49:26","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T12:49:26","slug":"plastics-unseen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2019\/03\/05\/plastics-unseen\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastics Unseen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sharp\"
RWU’s Dr. Koty Sharp points out to SURF undergrad Leah Hintz how a local coral species ingests microplastics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Roger Williams University junior Leah Hintz<\/strong> could sit in front of the microscope for hours, so long as her specimen, a species of coral found in the waters off Fort Wetherill in Jamestown, did as she hoped: ingest microplastic beads.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the coral don\u2019t cooperate,\u201d said Hintz with a laugh this past summer. \u201cA few times we have been sitting here for three hours and nothing happens. I\u2019ll think, \u2018this is too long\u2019 and wait another hour, but that is science.\u201d <\/p>\n

But why was Hintz, a Fairfield, Conn.<\/b> native, feeding the tiniest plastic particles to this coral, named Astrangia<\/i> <\/i>poculata<\/i>? To discover how one of the world\u2019s most concerning environmental hazards is affecting food webs at the microscopic level. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlastics in the ocean are weathered down and become microplastics,\u201d explained the Roger Williams University student. \u201cThey are everywhere \u2013 every time we wash our clothes in the washing machine, plastic microfibers shed from our clothing and wash into the water supply. Eventually, these microplastics are ingested by animals like filter feeders and get transferred through the food web into species that we eat. It is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[Plastics] are everywhere. Eventually, these microplastics are ingested by animals like filter feeders and get transferred through the food web into species that we eat. It is not good.\u201dLeah Hintz, SURF undergrad<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a concern for us because of human seafood consumption, but it\u2019s also a threat to marine life. The nutrition of the animals is impacted by microplastics,”\u202fadded Dr. <\/b>Koty<\/b> Sharp<\/b>, Hintz\u2019s mentor and assistant professor of biology at RWU. “If your gut is filled with plastic instead of proteins and carbs and fats, there\u2019s little in there to provide energy for growth and reproduction.\u201d <\/p>\n

By measuring how many microplastics the local coral ingests, scientists are using the species as a biomarker indicating plastic levels in waters which may seem clean, especially in urban areas. <\/p>\n

Hintz and her colleagues also became scientific troubleshooters, figuring out a way to trap microplastic beads within the waters off Fort Wetherill for a period of time so that local seawater microbes would grow on them. Their solution was simple; a small piece of PVC pipe wrapped on both sides by a nylon mesh. The SURF researchers could thus bring the beads covered in microbes back into the lab and examine how those microbes, together with the plastics, impact the health of Astrangia<\/i>. <\/p>\n

Sharp was impressed by Hintz and her fellow undergraduate researchers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the most important thing to teach our students is that when you work together, your science is better,\u201d asserted Sharp. \u201cThis group has had to design their methods from scratch \u2013 they\u2019re figuring out original methods for how to deploy equipment and run experiments. These guys work as a team.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since the summer, Hintz has pursued her enthusiasm for oceanic research, studying coral in Bermuda this past fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger Williams University junior Leah Hintz could sit in front of the microscope for hours, so long as her specimen, a species of coral found in the waters off Fort Wetherill in Jamestown, did as she hoped: ingest microplastic beads. \u201cSometimes the coral don\u2019t cooperate,\u201d said Hintz with a laugh this past summer. \u201cA few times we have been sitting here for three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[891],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curr-non-list"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29078"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29096,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29078\/revisions\/29096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}