Due to unforeseen unfortunate circumstances we have been placed in an online class for the Oceanography Lab. My research project started being about how micro plastics affect our environment. This year my proposal's question was to figure out which area of our beaches was most cluttered in micro plastics. This will give way to make claims and studies of what further can be done.
My first slide introduces my project and me.
This third slide asks my scientific question: How is the wrack on the Daytona Beach shores infiltrated by plastic compared to the surrounding beaches?
The fourth slide discusses my materials and methods. I would be going out collecting wrack and bringing it back to the lab.
My fifth slide is for my data. With the bar graph I compare the different areas on the designated dates I went out into the field.
Question1) I see that you speak about Daytona Beach being a tourist beach. Do you think their could be other ways that plastic is entering the wrack? Or do you believe it is only because of the tourist?
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2) You mentioned the sea birds ingest the wrack (including the micro- plastics), how does this pose as a threat to their overall health. How does this impact their nests and when they feed their young?
Thank you! For your first question I believe that tourism pollution is a factor. Sargassum or wrack travels through the ocean and picks up trash in that way as well. For your second question that is an extremely important point. Birds use wrack as one of the building blocks of their nesting as well as a source of food. Just as turtles eat plastic bags thinking it is a jellyfish, the birds might make this error as well. I will look deeper into studies done on that and branch this research.
DeleteOh! This is something I actually have knowledge of, as I've done research in the past regarding plastic consumption in seabirds! I can send the sources themselves to you through slack if you'd like, though you can find the articles by searching the titles "Ghost species and shadow places" and "Sweet scent of plastic fools seabirds" on the DSC Library homepage. Those aren't the only articles around, but are a good start if you plan on digging deeper.
DeleteTo summarize to help answer from what I know however, seabirds often mistake the plastic for food, and some even seek it out because it smells like their food as well. This can be fatal, as it injures them and they can't pass the plastic through their digestive tracks most of the time, so it often builds up in them instead. For those that do survive consumption while having chicks, those chicks are often fed the plastic as well, further resulting in more fatalities.
Great presentation Lily! I'm actually more curious about the locations you chose as well. Is there a specific purpose on why you chose these beaches or was this because they are tourist beaches? Did you consider testing sites that have less traffic?
ReplyDeleteHi Lily! I think you have a great scientific question that could really speak volume to the local community. I can even see it turning into something like a citizen science program. I would love to see more images in you proposal to really visualize what wrack looks like on our local beaches! Have you thought about including any information on what percentages of this wrack has actually come from our citizens or tourists? Or if it drifted from somewhere else and landed on our coast?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting proposal! I think the information your discovering will yield crucial information of the plastics on our local beaches. Your slides were organized very well and easy to read. I love the bar graph you used, it definitely helps visualize and compare the micro plastics on each beach. My question kind of ties in with Hollys, I'm wondering how much of these micro-plastics are caused from tourism versus from the tides and currents pushing it in elsewhere. I know that may be a hard thing to distinguish but I think the information you have already provided is wonderful!
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