Effects of Microplastics on Ecologically and Economically Relevant Species
Microplastics — Ubiquitous and Dangerous
My junior year, in 2018, I was accepted into an REU program at Oregon State University in the Brander Lab, to investigate micro plastic ingestion in nearshore rockfish off of the Oregon Coast.
I dove into the world of microplastics. I dissected over 100 rockfish that summer and found that a decent percent of them contained plastics!
This work is ongoing in the Brander Lab.
A Wide Number of Organisms are Exposed to Microplastics
Excited by the field of microplastics, I found myself asking more questions about the methods used in these studies, and the numbers of organisms ingesting microplastics.
I continued my research from the Brander Lab by asking if mole crabs ingest more microplastics in the presence of a food source. I conducted my senior thesis project under Drs. Gary Cherr and Eric Sanford. I taught myself new methods to characterize microplastic ingestion and found that mole crabs, much like rockfish, are in danger of microplastic ingestion.
Presentations and Publications
1) Lasdin, S.K., Landry, J., Agrawal, A., Brander, S.M. 2020. Spatial-temporal occurrence of microplastics in Sebastes melanops off the coast of Oregon. Ocean Sciences Meeting, San Diego, CA.
2) Lasdin, S.K., Landry, J., Agrawal, A., Brander, S.M. 2019. Spatial-temporal occurrence of microplastics in Sebastes melanops off the coast of Oregon. CERF 2019, Mobile, AL.
3) Agrawal, A. Microplastic ingestion in mole crabs, Emerita analoga. 2019. 30th Annual Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities Conference, UC Davis, CA.
4) Agrawal, A., Landry, J., Lasdin, K., Brander, S. 2019. Microplastic ingestion by two different populations of rockfish (Sebastes melanops) off of the coast of Oregon. ASLO 2019 Aquatic Sciences Meeting, San Juan, PR.
5) Landry, J., Agrawal, A., Lasdin, K., Brander, S. 2018. Potential for microplastic ingestion and impacts for nearshore rockfish. Western Society of Naturalists, Tacoma, WA.