NSF Awards SSU Grant for Microplastics Research

From left: Students Makiah Mooney (B.S. Marine Sciences), Sierra Myers (M.S. Marine Sciences), and Emely Perez (B.S. Marine Sciences) collect water and comb jelly samples aboard SSU’s R/V Margaret C Robinson.

NSF Awards Savannah State University Grant for Microplastics Research

The $1,038,533 Grant Supports Research off Georgia’s Coast

Savannah State University (SSU) was recently awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation that will support graduate and undergraduate research to help determine the quantities and movement patterns of microplastics within and traversing between the main coastal Georgia river systems and Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. 

The collaborative project pools resources from SSU, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center Sandy Hook Laboratory, the University of Georgia Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, and Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. The thrust of the project is three-fold: identify the amount and characteristics for micro- and nano-plastic distributions; examine animal samples for plastic contamination; and complete the design and construction of a cost-effective shallow-water system for sediment and water tracking and sample collection. 

The 3-year grant will provide vital research opportunities for four SSU undergraduate students per year and two SSU graduate students during the grant period. Students will be directly involved in all aspects of the project, including the development and testing of the shallow-water system, monitoring water movement using static and drifting monitors, and collecting sediment and water samples. The team will also conduct sample analyses for the amount of plastic in the water, sediment, and animal samples and, additionally, develop and curate exhibits on micro- and nano-plastics at the Ocean Discovery Center in downtown Savannah. 

“Students have been quite interested in gaining an understanding of the major environmental issues and working to formulate solutions to problems such plastic in the oceans,” said Sue C. Ebanks, Ph.D., professor in SSU’s marine science program. “With this project, we seek to begin to determine the sources and movements of small particulate plastics in our region while raising awareness and action toward reduction of the sources, which are critically important parts of the solution.” 

Research opportunities for minority students are particularly valuable as research points to extremely low participation of racial minorities in earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences. In 2016, only 6 percent of geoscience doctorates awarded in the United States went to students from underrepresented minorities, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience in 2018. Furthermore, according to NSF data (2014), SSU contributed up to 47 percent of the African American M.S. degree recipients and 89 percent of the B.S. degree recipients in the Ocean Sciences from 2002 to 2012. Currently, SSU has 100 students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Marine Sciences program and 24 in the Master of Science in Marine Sciences program. 

Ebanks and Christopher Hintz, Ph.D., professor in SSU’s Marine Sciences program, are co-investigators in the NSF grant. For more information, please click HERE.