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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. Microplastics (plastic particles smaller than 5 mm in size) are a prevalent pollutant in the marine environment that can accumulate in predators when they consume prey items that have ingested microplastics. Larval (young) fishes are important prey for many marine predators such as the fishes and invertebrates that humans rely on for food. Thus, the intake of microplastics by larval fishes has implications for the entire marine food web, fisheries and aquaculture sectors, and human health. Yet, little is known about the ingestion of microplastics by larval fishes. Using a larval fish collection spanning the last 30 years, the fellow will investigate microplastic ingestion in larval fish from past and present to better understand the potential for microplastic accumulation in larval fish predators and examine larval fish characteristics that may influence microplastic ingestion. In addition, the fellow will help improve methods commonly used to identify microplastics, mentor undergraduate students on independent research projects, and create a microplastics education and outreach activity.
The fellow will utilize the Rutgers University Marine Field Station’s 30-year (1989-2019) larval fish collection to elucidate (i) if abundances and characteristics (type [primary vs. secondary], chemical composition, color, size, form [fiber, fragment, etc.]) of microplastics entering lower trophic levels of the marine food web have changed over time and (ii) whether organismal ecological traits (developmental stage, spawning location, feeding strategy) influence microplastic intake. In order to address these research questions, select Anchoa mitchilli (Bay anchovy), Brevoortia tyrannus (Atlantic menhaden), Menidia menidia (Atlantic silverside), and Micropogonias undulatus (Atlantic croaker) from all thirty years of the collection will be chemically digested following a standardized protocol that efficiently digests organic material, but not plastics. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (py-GC-MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy will be used to determine the chemical composition of any isolated microplastics. In addition to addressing these research questions, the fellow will work with industry scientists to develop methods to lower microplastic size detection limits for py-GC-MS, mentor two undergraduate students through research internship programs that promote diversity and inclusion in STEM, and create a research-based microplastics activity that helps the public conceptualize the size of microplastics and the expansive scale of the microplastics problem.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
