Beads of Destruction: A Great Lakes Plastic Pollution Survey
The study of plastic pollution started in the world’s oceans, most famously focused on the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Despite a United Nations’ report suggesting that 80 percent of this oceanic debris came from land and, thus, was likely transported through a freshwater system, little research has focused upon these freshwater systems. During the summers of 2012 and 2013, Dr. Mason and her team conducted the first-ever survey for plastic pollution within the open-waters of the Great Lakes. This lecture examines the results from these initial open-water surveys, as well as additional, more recent investigation. – Sherri A. Mason, Ph.D., professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, State University of New York at Fredonia.
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Dr. Sherri A. Mason earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed her doctorate in Chemistry at the University of Montana as a NASA Earth System Science Scholar. She is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the State University of New York at Fredonia. Though her background is in atmospheric chemistry, her research group is now poised at the forefront of research on plastic pollution. As co-PI on the first-ever survey for plastic pollution within the open waters of the Great Lakes, her research group is among the first to study the prevalence and impact of plastic pollution within freshwater ecosystems and, as such, has been featured within hundreds of mass media articles, including the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
