Week Six

This week, I decided on my research project for Exploration Ecology: Field Study (BIOL 484). If you've been following along, you'll know how stoked I am to get started. 

I will study the microplastic presence in Mariner Park, which lies in the "armpit" of the Homer Spit. A recent proposal by Doyon Limited Alaska Native Corporation has proposed a hotel and condo complex above the marshes that make up Mariner Park, which (regardless of community feelings toward the construction) will increase road use, amount of incoming (or 'influent') wastewater for the Homer Wastewater Treatment Plant, and general pollution. The Doyon site, Homer Spit Road runoff, and wastewater treated by the plant (also known as 'effluent') will all find their way into the greater Cook Inlet (see figures below). 

Microplastics can be extremely harmful to wildlife, to organisms of all size, and to us. While some people may think of plastic pollution as the chunks of garbage that we see, microplastics are actually <5mm wide and therefore are easily ingested by everything from zooplankton to human beings. Scientists are having a difficult time researching the effects of microplastics, especially considering most people (even human fetuses) have microplastic contamination in our livers, hearts, and other critical tissues. These can build up and cause blockage or harm your intestinal track. At a moleular level (as mentioned last week), individual plastic polymers have the capacity to tear into DNA and impact biota on a cellular level. So, getting a good understanding of the microplastics present in Mariners Marsh before (and then after) the Doyon hotel construction would give us a much better understanding of how much plastic pollution can come from anthropogenic expansion, and it would provide future scientists with baseline data to track sources of microplastics from Cook Inlet. 

Wrack surveys are continuing weekly; this week's survey was great, although we didn't see any birds during the avian survey. I put more hours into researching wrack as an indicator of water quality, and testing out R. I also tried GIS on my own, especially with datasets that mapping biological resources (such as species presence and history). Super interesting stuff! 

And, in other news, internship status is a bit rocky. Federal employees of NOAA, NPS, and countless other organizations are being illegally fired. This has caused some previously known variables for my semester internship work to become unknown. I am grateful to the NOAA NCCOS staff who are working tirelessly to make our collaboration continue, and keep producing high-quality research for public use. Without NOAA, NIH, NPS, USF&W, the EPA, DEC, BLM, DNR, and other federal branches that manage our environmental resources, so many students and scientists would be without the datasets and information that educate, back funding for, and support community health. A huge thank you also goes out to everyone who has signed petitions to keep these critical employees, and support their research and efforts.