E-RISE RII: Socio-ecological Impact of Microplastics in Coastal Ecosystems

This multidisciplinary, stakeholder-guided research incubator project will address the impacts and challenges of nano and micro scale plastics (NMPs) that threaten the health of global coastal ecosystems. The project will build physical and human capacity, while also prioritizing workforce development in this increasingly important field. The project will bolster Rhode Island’s workforce capacity via trained physical and social scientists as well as engineers to respond to various stressors such as NMPs. The research team will investigate the following questions: (Q1) What processes govern the transport and fate of NMPs within coastal ecosystems? (Q2) How do complex environmental conditions and sources combine to influence the distribution, organism loading, and food web dynamics of NMPs? (Q3) How can socially and scientifically informed approaches be designed to advise policy governing NMP impacts? The project unites four Rhode Island educational institutions through a collaboration among University of Rhode Island, Brown University, Rhode Island College, and Roger Williams University. The project will build Rhode Island’s research capacity through physical, human, and cyber infrastructure to monitor and characterize marine NMPs, to determine their fate and transport in aquatic ecosystems, and to identify use-inspired needs in the co-generation of knowledge. The project will employ experimental observations and machine learning enhanced models to become a global leader in informing policy regarding the impacts and mitigation of NMPs in coastal ecosystems. Through capital improvements to the Rhode Island research infrastructure (e.g. installment of advanced molecular spectroscopy equipment), the project will develop a network of instrumentation to conduct standardized analytical studies on NMP samples. Additionally, modeling of NMP transport throughout the coastal ecosystem as well as investigating NMP impacts in higher trophic organisms will be performed. A uniting Inter-Theme, known as the SIMCoast Boundary Organization, focuses on social science and the engagement of community partners and other stakeholders to interweave use-inspired perspectives in all project components. This project is supported by the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program: EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE). E-RISE supports the development of sustainable research infrastructure and capacity in EPSCoR jurisdictions through collaborative, hypothesis-driven, or problem-driven research and workforce development to improve competitiveness in selected STEM fields. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.