Microplastic pollution on historic facades: Hidden ‘sink' or urban threat?

New paper, lead by Dr. Katrin Wilhelm from the School of Geography and the Enviroment, is out! The paper has been piblished on Enviromental Pollution: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749123021309?via%3Dihub.

It was a great experience to collaborate with such an interdisciplinary group! We were biologist, geologist, chemist and more!

In this paper we investigate the presence of #microplastics not only in expected environments like rivers and oceans but also in locations such as historic buildings.

In this paper, I have developed a method with an insttrument called FlowCam, combining machine learning, microscopy and flow cytometry, to detect the microplastics.

The findings sadly reveal the presence of microplastics ( #MPs ) on urban surfaces, The study emphasises the urgent need for awareness and action to address this growing concern.

Figure 2 from the paper: FlowCam image examples of microplastic (a) and for organic matter (b), the later has been excluded from the microfibre count in our study.