ATLANTIC TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
Focus On
Atlantic TU Research Researching Microplastics: From Tide to Table Meet ATU Galway Researcher Róisín Nash As a marine biologist, I love to eat seafood and at the same time, I am particularly interested in enabling sustainability and conserving marine biodiversity. My research explores the animals that live in, on or near our seabed, from the fish I eat to the amazing little creatures that they feed on. Overfishing, climate change and pollution, has meant that to conserve biodiversity I need to refocus my research on pressures such as microplastic pollution, their sources, pathways and fate.
What are Microplastics? Microplastics are the smaller bits of plastic, smaller than the eraser on the top of a pencil, or as small as the thickness of a strand of hair. They are so prevalent that everywhere we have looked from the deep sea habitats off the Irish continental shelf (~3000m) to the many animals inhabiting our seas to the intertidal of Galway Bay our team has found them.
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Issue Two June 2022
We cannot deny that society needs to change. However, we also need policy makers to act decisively and take positive steps in tackling societal issues such as plastic pollution.
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Dr Róisín Nash, lecturer and researcher, Marine and Freshwater Research Centre (MFRC), ATU Galway City
