Melinda Paduani, a PhD candidate at FIU Institute of Environment, led a Miami Plastic Patrol workshop at our office. The group learned about microplastics and the threats they pose before practicing special sampling collection techniques to get the most accurate sample collections.
Participants are now trained as citizen scientists to collect and analyze samples and to submit data to Melinda for her PhD research.
About Microplastics Research
Researchers around the world are studying microplastics, but there’s little to no data about microplastics in Biscayne Bay. Melinda’s goal is to fill that research gap and determine how much plastic is in the Bay through a citizen science monitoring program – and we’re happy to be a small part of this big project!
To learn more about Melinda’s research and how to become a citizen scientist, you can email her directly at [email protected].
Originally published at https://www.miamiwaterkeeper.org/miami_plastic_patrol