Marine Microplastics
Plastics’ impact on oceans under scrutiny
“We have an opportunity now, where there is public awareness,” said Mark Hahn, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “They (plastics) don’t belong there (in the ocean).”
Microplastics research needs innovation, health focus
“Studying microplastics is hard because [they are] not a single contaminant like lead or a uniform contaminant like PCBs [polychlorinated biphenyls],” said NIEHS grantee Mark Hahn, Ph.D., a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “It is a diverse and complex mixture of materials.”
How Big Oil and Big Soda kept a global environmental calamity a secret for decades
The threat to human health is complex and poorly understood. “There are a lot more questions than answers at this point,” says Mark Hahn, a toxicologist at WHOI who studies microplastics.
The sun can help break down ocean plastic, but there’s a catch
A recent studyfound that when four different types of post-consumer microplastics collected from the waters of the North Pacific Gyre were placed under a solar simulator, they dissolved into organic carbon.
Particles in Waves: Transport of Microplastics in the Ocean from a Particle Perspective
Michelle DiBenedetto, WHOI Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department
Read MoreMicroplastics in the Ocean: Emergency or Exaggeration (event recording)
October 15, 2019 – Watch this recorded public event entitled Microplastics in the Ocean: Emergency of Exaggeration? with a keynote presentation by Dr. Kara Lavender Law on the science of ocean plastic pollution and laying the foundation for solutions.
Dr. Law is a faculty member at Sea Education Association, where she studies the distribution of plastic marine debris driven by ocean physics and the degradation and ultimate fate of plastics in the ocean.
Keynote presentation is followed by a panel discussion on the international perspectives on marine microplastics research moderated by Dr. Heather Goldstone, host of Living Lab, WCAI, Cape & Islands NPR. Panelists include:
Dr. Chelsea Rochman
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Hauke Kite-Powell
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, U.S.A.
Dr. Gunnar Gerdts
Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany
Dr. Hideshige Takada
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan
Dr. Collin Ward
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, U.S.A.
Sponsored by the Elisabeth W. and Henry A. Morss, Jr., Colloquia Endowed Fund
Learn more about marine microplastics here:
https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/pollution/marine-microplastics/
In the sea, not all plastic lasts forever
A major component of ocean pollution is less devastating and more manageable than usually portrayed.
Study: Styrofoam Might Last Only Decades, Not Millennia, in the Ocean
Researchers from MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say that sunlight can break down polystyrene within a few decades.
In the Sea, Not All Plastic Lasts Forever
Polystyrene, a common ocean pollutant, decomposes in sunlight much faster than thought, a new study finds.
Sunlight can degrade polystyrene in decades
Polystyrene degrades much faster than previously thought.
Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected
The general consensus of governmental agencies is that it takes polystyrene thousands of years to fully break down. But a new study shows that it may instead degrade in decades or centuries when exposed to sunlight.
Read MoreMorss Colloquium – Microplastics In The Ocean: Emergency or Exaggeration? The Science of Ocean Plastic Pollution: Laying the Foundation for Solutions
Kara Lavender Law, Sea Education Association Sponsored by: Elisabeth W. and Henry A., Morss, Jr., Colloquia Endowed Fund
Read MoreMicroplastics Found In The Ocean And In Human Poop
Where are the sources of these microplastics? Well, as a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution video explains, some of the microplastics may be coming from larger plastic objects such as bottles and other households goods being ground up by the elements.
Know Your Ocean Science Chats: Microplastics in the Ocean: Fact or Frenzy?
Mark Hahn, WHOI Sponsored by: WHOI Discovery Center & Visitor Center
Read MoreSummer Student Fellow Final Presentations: Microplastics in New Bedford Harbor
Sara Matsumura, Haverford College Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office
Read MoreMicroplastics in the Ocean: Emergency or Exaggeration?
Tuesday, October 15, 2019 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Lillie Auditorium 7 MBL Street Woods Hole, MA 02543 Keynote Presentation: The…
Read MoreMicroplastics in the Ocean – Separating Fact from Fiction
WHOI scientists weigh in on the state of marine microplastics science.
Read MoreWebinar: Sweating the Small Stuff: Impacts of Marine Microplastics
Particles on the Move
An MIT-WHOI Joint Program student investigates what happens to nanoplastics once they’re ingested by fish.
Read MoreMarine Microplastics
What are marine microplastics? Marine microplastics are small fragments of plastic debris that are less than five millimeters long. Some…
Read More
