Emma Nichols Joins Adrift Lab
Emma Nichols is joining Adrift Lab as a new Honours student. Her project will look at the distribution, origins, and transport of micro and nanoplastics throughout the marine environment. Emma introduces herself below:
My name is Emma, and I’m excited to begin my Honours research with the Adrift team in February 2020. My concern over anthropogenic impacts has only grown throughout the years, and I am eager to further develop my own understanding of the effects our species is having on the natural world. I have grown particularly fond of the work carried out by Dr Jennifer Lavers, and feel incredibly lucky to now be a part of a team of like-minded and passionate people.
My honours research will focus on the accumulation and travel of plastic debris from Henderson Island, a remote uninhabited island in the South Pacific Region. I will look at micro and nanoplastic samples that Dr Jennifer Lavers and Dr Alex Bond collected from the Island during an expedition in 2019. Photographs of macroplastics with their barcodes still intact will further allow me to determine the country of origin, and therefore the travel of these plastic items within the marine environment.
From a young age I have continued to grow an understanding and appreciation of the importance every organism plays in the balance of life. And so I find myself in constant awe of the world around me. From my first time snorkelling at the age of six, I have had a particularly strong connection with our ocean. Our one ocean is the life support system of our habitable planet, and without it, life would not exist. I therefore see great need to better understand the fragility of our ocean and look at how we can continue to protect it.
“Even if you never have the chance to see or touch the ocean, the ocean touches you with every breath you take, every drop of water you drink, every bite you consume. Everyone, everywhere is inextricably connected to and utterly dependent upon the existence of the sea.”
— Dr Sylvia Earle