It is incumbent upon teachers to reach out to students through methods that capitalize on the students' own motivations. Because of the diversity of self-referential personal styles of learning, reaching every student with a cookie-cutter approach to teaching is nearly impossible. This report explores the application of a type of problem-based learning known as "Legacy Cycles" that apply web technology to answer challenges presented as scenarios. The scenarios give students a similar experience to scientists pursuing investigation and research. Students then search for answers to questions, learn more about the processes being taught with hands-on activities, and prepare a product to demonstrate mastery of the content. In this example of the Legacy Cycle, three challenges are used to teach concepts of density, ocean currents and plastic pollution. / text

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging micro-pollutant that pose a threat to the ecological integrity of freshwater rivers and wetlands. Most previous work on MPs pollution has focused on marine environments. This study aimed to investigate the spatial distribution and abundance of MPs particles in the bed sediment of a freshwater coastal lake in the Zeekoevlei Nature Reserve, Cape Town, which is fed by rivers and stormwater outlets draining a heavily urbanized environment. The first objective was to characterize the spatial distribution of MPs across the lakebed environment, in relation to possible point and non-point sources of contamination.

Plasticozoic excavates humanity’s relationship to nature and to ourselves through plastic artifacts of consumer culture, which were recovered from oceans and beaches by the artist, or sent to her from around the world. Through created specimens and collected fragments of the Anthropocene, it considers the precariousness of our place in time, where misperceptions of reality and the collective impact of our every day lives can have global effects. "Future geologists will be able to precisely mark our era as the Plasticozoic, the place in the sands of time in which bits of plastic first appeared." -Oceanographer A. Sylvia Earle, The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One

abstract: Plastic pollution has become a global threat to ecosystems worldwide, with microplastics now representing contaminants reported to occur in ambient air, fresh water, seawater, soils, fauna and people. Over time, larger macro-plastics are subject to weathering and fragmentation, resulting in smaller particles, termed ‘microplastics’ (measuring < 5 mm in diameter), which have been found to pollute virtually every marine and terrestrial ecosystem on the planet. This thesis explored the transfer of plastic pollutants from consumer products into the built water environment and ultimately into global aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. A literature review demonstrated that municipal sewage sludge produced by wastewater treatment plants around the world contains detectable quantities of microplastics. Application of sewage sludge on land was shown to represent a mechanism for transfer of microplastics from wastewater into terrestrial environments, with some countries reporting as high as 113 ± 57 microplastic particles per gram of dry sludge. To address the notable shortcoming of inconsistent reporting practices for microplastic pollution, this thesis introduced a novel, online calculator that converts the number of plastic particles into the unambiguous metric of mass, thereby making global studies on microplastic pollution directly comparable. This thesis concludes with an investigation of a previously unexplored and more personal source of plastic pollution, namely the disposal of single-use contact lenses and an assessment of the magnitude of this emerging source of environmental pollution. Using an online survey aimed at quantifying trends with the disposal of lenses in the US, it was discovered that 20 ± 0.8% of contact lens wearers flushed their used lenses down the drain, amounting to 44,000 ± 1,700 kg y-1 of lens dry mass discharged into US wastewater. From the results it is concluded that conventional and medical microplastics represent a significant global source of pollution and a long-term threat to ecosystems around the world. Recommendations are provided on how to limit the entry of medical microplastics into the built water environment to limit damage to ecosystems worldwide. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biology 2020

This report is about an innovative project on the sustainable design of disposable products triggered by critical thinking related to the environmental protection and use of paper-based disposable products.   The project is set against the backdrop of the UN End-plastic-pollution initiative, in the 21st century when plastic waste is proliferating and microplastics spread across the planet's ecosystems are already causing a serious environmental crisis. With a focus on disposable products, the project investigates and analyses the sustainability and experience of using paper-based disposable products as an alternative to plastic.   The authors argue that neither disposable products nor plastics are responsible for the current environmental crisis, but rather that the main problem lies in the leakage of disposable products through their life cycle, which is mainly related to consumer behaviour and life cycle management.   The study proposes a systemic innovation that combines enhanced lifecycle management through emerging technologies and a subscription service model for disposable products with user-centred principles. The innovation includes lifecycle maps, user journey maps and user interfaces as visual outcomes.   Finally, an assessment of the potential risks of the systemic innovative solution and a summary and reflection of the overall project are presented.

It is estimated that 75 million tons of plastics waste is currently in the ocean and expects to increase in line with plastic consumption. Plastic items in natural or aquatic environments are fragmented into smaller pieces called microplastics. Microplastics can enter rivers and lakes through sewage water to end up in wetlands where they sediment. Due to lack of standard monitoring tools, microplastics in a Scanian context are rather uninvestigated. The current work therefore studies microplastics’ abundance in eleven wetlands along the Sege river and Kävlinge river. The aim is with available methods and tools to examine microplastics in sediment and examine if determined microplastics concentrations can relate to urbanization in the two catchments. The study also looked into wetlands position in relation to stream order to test if microplastics concentrations increase downstream. In the study, density separation has been used to extract microplastics from soil samples and analyzed using correlation. The result showed microplastics concentrations in all sampling sites. There was weak negative or no correlation with degree of urbanization nor a relation to higher concentration further downstream along Sege river and Kävlinge river. However, the study concludes that microplastics do appear in Scanian wetlands and not necessarily in the vicinity of human activity which complies with microplastics' ability to travel long distances. / Idag finns det cirka 75 miljoner ton plastavfall i haven, som förväntas öka i samband med ökad plastkonsumtion. Plastföremål i naturliga eller akvatiska miljöer fragmenteras till mindre bitar som kallas mikroplast. Mikroplast kan transporteras till åar och sjöar genom dagvatten eller avloppsvatten, och slutligen sedimenteras i våtmarker. Inom arbete med plastföroreningar i Skåne saknas övervakning av mikroplast koncentrationen. På grund av brist på standardverktyg för övervakning är mikroplaster i Skåne förhållandevis outforskat. Denna studie tittar därmed på mikroplast förekomsten i elva våtmarker längs Sege å och Kävlingeån. Syftet är att med tillgängliga metoder och verktyg undersöka mikroplast i sediment, om koncentrationer kan relatera till tätorter i närområdet. Studien tittar också på våtmarkernas position i förhållande till stream order för att testa om mikroplast koncentrationerna ökar nedströms. I studien har flotteringsmetoden använts för att extrahera mikroplaster från jordprover och dessa analyserades med korrelation. Resultatet visade på förekomst av mikroplaster i samtliga våtmarker. Dock kunde studien inte påvisa någon relation mellan urbanisering och högre koncentration av mikroplaster och resultaten visade också en svag negativ eller ingen korrelation mellan en ökad koncentration av mikroplaster och stream order. Vad studien kan dra för slutsatsen är att mikroplaster förekommer i skånska våtmarker som inte nödvändigtvis är i närheten av mänsklig aktivitet vilket överensstämmer med mikroplasters förmåga att färdas långa sträckor.

Meeresmüll ist ein Problem, das viele verschiedene Meeresarten betrifft, von Säugetieren bis hin zu Wirbellosen. Sie kann mehrere zerstörerische Auswirkungen auf marine Ökosysteme haben und tritt weltweit auf. Das Ziel meiner Forschung in Kerteminde, Dänemark, war es, mögliche physiologische und strukturelle Auswirkungen von marinem Plastikmüll (= Makroplastik) auf Aggregate der Miesmuschelart Mytilus spp. zu verstehen. Es ist bei diesen Tieren üblich, Aggregate in Gezeiten- und flachen subtidalen Lebensräumen zu bilden. Sie bieten verschiedene Ökosystemleistungen, wie die Stabilisierung der Küstenlinie oder die Bereitstellung von Lebensraum für andere Arten. Miesmuscheln sind Filtrierer und tragen so zur biologischen Sanierung bei, die eine wichtige Fähigkeit zur Entfernung von Abfällen aus marinen Ökosystemen darstellt. Angesichts der Ökosystemleistungen, die Muschelaggregate erbringen, ist es entscheidend, alle Faktoren zu verstehen, die dieser Struktur schaden könnten. Mein Fokus lag auf den Auswirkungen von starren und weichen Makroplastikfolien, also Flaschen und Beuteln, da sie weltweit verbreiteten Meeresmüll darstellen. Ich fand heraus, dass Makroplastik tatsächlich die Struktur von Miesmuschelaggregaten beeinflusst. Mein Projekt war Teil einer globalen Studie, organisiert vom GEOMAR Kiel, bei der Masterstudenten aus sechs Ländern die gleichen Experimente durchführten, um makroplastische Effekte auf globaler Ebene zu vergleichen. Ich danke dem GAME-Programm am GEOMAR Kiel für die Finanzierung meiner Forschung sowie Dr. Mark Lenz für die Organisation des Projekts. Außerdem möchte ich dem Meeresbiologischen Forschungszentrum in Kerteminde für die Aufnahme während meiner Forschung danken. / Marine litter is a problem that effects a lot of different marine species, from mammals to invertebrates. It can have several destructing effects on marine ecosystems and is occurring on a global scale. The aim of my research in Kerteminde, Denmark, was to understand potential physiological and structural effects of marine plastic debris (= macroplastic) on aggregates of the blue mussel species Mytilus spp. It is common among these animals to build aggregates in intertidal and shallow subtidal habitats. They provide several ecosystem services, like stabilizing the shoreline or providing habitat for other species. Blue mussels are filter-feeders and so contributing to bioremediation, which is a key capacity to remove wastes from marine ecosystems. Considering the ecosystem services mussel aggregates provide, it is crucial to understand any factors that could harm this structure. My focus laid on the effects of rigid and soft macroplastic films, i.e. bottles and bags, as they represent common marine litter worldwide. I found that macroplastic indeed affects the structure of blue mussel aggregates. My project was part of a global study, organized by GEOMAR Kiel, where Master students from six countries conducted the same experiments to compare macroplastic effects on a global scale. I would like to thank the GAME program at GEOMAR Kiel for financing my research as wells as Dr. Mark Lenz for the organization of the project. Moreover, I want to thank the Marine Biological Research Center in Kerteminde for hosting me during my research.

In the Saudi Arabian Red Sea, two of the seven species of sea turtles are known to nest and forage along the coast, the hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). As a result of some life history characteristics, sea turtles are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic impacts. Under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the recent opening of its borders to recreational tourists, the country aims to develop several large-scale projects along the Red Sea coast, locally known as “giga-projects”. Thus, imminent pressures from coastal development highlight the urgency needed for multi-country cooperation in protecting sea turtles in the region. This dissertation aims to establish some baseline data and protocols for future work to meet the data needs of the relevant conservation authorities in Saudi Arabia. In particular, this thesis contributes new and important information to some of the identified knowledge gaps for the Red Sea region, including sea turtle habitat use, threat assessment (plastic and heavy metal pollution), and evaluating hatching success. I used satellite telemetry to understand foraging home ranges of hawksbill and green turtles, post-nesting migrations, and inter-nesting habitat use of green turtles. Additionally, I used photo identification to understand the abundance and behavior of turtles at a Rabigh fringing reef, in the central Red Sea. I assessed two anthropogenic contaminants as a threat to Red Sea turtles: heavy metal contamination and plastic ingestion. Heavy metal concentrations in the sand were evaluated at the largest green turtle rookery in Saudi Arabia, Ras Baridi, which is located next to a cement factory. I also assessed the concentration of heavy metals in the tissues of dead hatchlings found at Ras Baridi. Additionally, I studied plastic ingestion in ten deceased turtles found along the Saudi Arabian Red Sea. In my last data chapter, I assessed the hatching success of green turtle nests, and investigated clutch relocation as a possible method of increasing success. The final chapter summarizes the results from this research in the context of the 2004 PERSGA Marine Turtle Conservation Plan, and provides possible conservation strategy recommendations to protect Red Sea turtles

Plastic pollution is unavoidable in the natural environment. Consequences of plastic ingestion include exposure to environmental pollutants and toxin accumulation, causing endocrine disruption, inflammatory and physiological stress in organisms. Microplastics have been shown to transfer across food webs, however, limited studies have examined microplastic accumulation across terrestrial food webs. Furthermore, few studies have examined plastic pollution in apex predatory animals. A study was conducted to quantify the abundance of plastic pollution in the gastrointestinal tract in birds of prey. Two species were investigated, one which forages in terrestrial habitats and one which forages in aquatic environments including Buteo lineatus (red-shouldered hawk) and Pandion haliaetus (osprey), respectively. The gastrointestinal tract was necropsied, chemically digested, and examined for microplastic prevalence. Overall, microplastics are significantly more abundant per gram of gastrointestinal (GI) tract tissue in species that forage on small rodents and terrestrial reptiles (B. lineatus) as compared to species that forage on fish and aquatic invertebrates (P. haliaetus). Buteo lineatus averaged 0.81 (±0.15) fibers and 0.14 (±0.04) fragments per gram of GI tract tissue while P. halieatus averaged 0.31 (±0.09) fibers and 0.04 (±0.02) fragments per gram of GI tract tissue. There was a significant interaction between type and color in both B. lineatus and P. haliaetus GI tract tissues. Micro-Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) was run on haphazardly selected samples and found that rayon was the most common polymer identified in both species. The significant difference found between species could be indicative that terrestrial raptors may experience greater bioaccumulation than aquatic species foraging at comparable trophic levels. However, the significant interaction between type and color in both species indicates a potential common source of pollution that affects both environments. Further investigation on the source of polymers is necessary in order to develop conservation and management strategies aimed at decreasing the output of synthetic fibers into the environment. Due to the abundance of polymers found in these species, understanding the potential biological and physiological effects of plastics is essential to informing superior management strategies that can better protect and preserve wildlife from increasing anthropogenic pressures.

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