The hereby proposed work is part of the Managing for Microplastics: A Baseline to Inform Policy Stakeholders (IMP.act). (www.joaofrias.com/impact-project), which aims to identify accumulation areas for microplastic pollution in different environmental compartments in Galway Bay.
This research work focuses on demersal fish collected using a 3m Beam Trawl in the study area. All work and laboratory procedures will follow either in-house developed protocols developed in previous projects or the best available techniques retrieved from literature review. The student will have laboratory and health and safety training before starting, and will always be supervised in the lab by one of our team members.
The work will consist in:
- Processing the fish catch from a Beam Trawl (confirming species ID, measuring, weighing and removing stomachs).
- Digesting the stomachs using KOH and processing the remains, including filtering
- Quantification of microplastics under a microscope and micro-FTIR identification (in the process of servicing our equipment
- Depending on time availability, the student will be involved in a literature review on microplastics in demersal and other fish.
- Data analysis and result presentation to the project team.
Where opportunities arise, the student will be trained in other MP protocols for seawater and sediments, and potentially go in field work to collect intertidal samples from around Galway Bay. This is a great opportunity for those interested in the topic of marine anthropogenic litter and microplastic pollution.
