A $330,000 grant has been bestowed upon the UW-Green Bay in order to study the impact of microplastics on aquatic life in Lake Michigan. Racine-based SC Johnson made the 1/3 million dollar grant award to sponsor the study led by Patrick Forsythe, the UW-Green Bay’s Herbert Fisk Johnson professor of Environmental Studies. A team will collect fish at regular sites around Lake Michigan and Green Bay, using microscopes to examine their stomach contents in order to identify the size and types of plastic particles they contain.
The problem of microplastics is growing globally, and the implications aren’t entirely understood. Microplastics can become part of the food chain and eventually end up in humans. According to a University of Mexico study, the brain you’re using to think about this likely already contains enough microplastic to make a plastic spoon, and that might be raising the risk of degenerative diseases.
Besides helping to understand that risk, the grant will promote learning by helping to pay for a postdoctoral researcher, a master’s student and several undergraduates who will gain hands-on experience in the field and the lab, and may publish reports and research papers.
Hiring should begin almost immediately and work will take place in 2026 and ‘27, with publication of findings anticipated in 2028.
Comments