Aquatic Pollution Crisis | How Are Marine Systems Affected By Contaminants?
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How do contaminants such as microplastics impact marine ecosystems? What can we do to mitigate the harmful effects of these pollutants? In this episode, we discuss these questions through the lens of aquatic toxicology and analytical chemistry with Austin Gray.
Austin is an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech. Austin's research interests are centered around environmental toxicology – specifically analyzing how emerging contaminants may pose a risk to a variety of freshwater and marine organisms…
In this episode, we unpack:36
- The importance of utilizing ecological and physiological approaches to understanding the consequences of contaminants within aquatic ecosystems.
- The interconnectedness of water pollution.
- Where microplastics come from, and how they enter marine systems.
- The types of water-dwelling organisms that are affected by microplastics, and what happens to them.
Austin has been conducting research since the age of 19, and since then, he has contributed much to his research field. What sets him apart from other biological scientists? Click play now to find out!
You can follow along with Austin's work on Twitter by clicking here.
Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: http://apple.co/30PvU9C
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | and microplastics or plastics in general, a large amount of them, 80% of them come from land-based |
| 0:04.8 | or end-lint sources, meaning inland streams and river systems. So, thinking about marine areas |
| 0:09.6 | of microplastics entering marine systems, I've done work looking at how they can impact different |
| 0:15.4 | types of organisms as far as shrimp, oysters, and I even have work right now looking at dolphins. |
| 0:20.6 | Microplastics within dolphins and South Carolina coasts within freshwater areas that can come from |
| 0:26.1 | the release within wastewater effluent, also degraded infrastructure, sewage infrastructure, |
| 0:31.2 | where there's leaky pipes, they can leach out not just microplastics. Forget frequently |
| 0:36.1 | ask questions. How about advice from a real genius? 95% of people in any profession are good |
| 0:44.4 | enough to be qualified in license. They become very good at what they do, but only 0.1% are real |
| 0:52.2 | geniuses. Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you. He hunts down and |
| 0:57.9 | interviews geniuses in every field, sleep science, cancer, stem cells, ketogenic diets, and more. |
| 1:03.3 | Here come the geniuses. This is the Finding Genius Podcast. |
| 1:07.7 | The Richard Jacobs. |
| 1:12.6 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast, now part of the Finding Genius |
| 1:17.2 | Foundation. I have Austin Gray. He's an assistant professor of biological sciences |
| 1:21.6 | at Virginia Tech. The way to talk about his work with microplastics and nanoplastics |
| 1:25.6 | at aquatic toxicology. So Austin, thank you for coming. |
| 1:28.9 | Well, thanks for having me. |
| 1:30.2 | If you would, tell me about your background, and then let's talk about the research you're doing |
| 1:33.7 | right now. |
| 1:34.5 | Yeah, so just briefly from Noob's Charleston, South Carolina, I'm the youngest of five boys, |
| 1:42.6 | and I started my research journey back at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina. |
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