Research News
May 2012: My co-authors and I published a paper on how plastic debris is altering open ocean habitats - check it out here!Research Description
For my Ph.D. at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, I studied the abundance and ecological implications of microplastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, with a focus on zooplankton and the invertebrates that live attached to floating debris. I'm working on publishing the bulk of my dissertation, but in the meantime, you can read the abstract.
SEAPLEX: Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition
In 2009, I served as Chief Scientist for a student-led expedition to explore the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre. From August 2-21, 2009, a group of doctoral students and research volunteers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego embarked on an expedition aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon exploring the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre. See below for links to SEAPLEX resources and publications.
SEAPLEX Technical Resources
-Technical webpage-Download data
SEAPLEX Outreach Resources
-Outreach webpage, blog and Twitter-Hi-res photos and Flickr photos free for use with credit
-Interactive Google map
-Videos from the expedition
-Lesson plans developed by teachers based on SEAPLEX work.
SEAPLEX Publications
Goldstein, M. C., M. Rosenberg, and L. Cheng. 2012. Increased oceanic microplastic debris enhances oviposition in an endemic pelagic insect. Biology Letters. Published online 9 May 2012. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0298/. Paper webpage.
Davison P, Asch RG (2011) Plastic ingestion by mesopelagic fishes in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 432:173-180. Press release; link.
Titmus AJ, Hyrenbach KD (2011) Habitat associations of floating debris and marine birds in the North East Pacific Ocean at coarse and meso spatial scales. Mar Pollut Bull 62: 2496–2506. Link.
Davison, P (2011) The specific gravity of mesopelagic fish from the northeastern Pacific Ocean and its implications for acoustic backscatter. ICES J. Mar. Sci. 68 (10): 2064-2074. Link.