Organisms you cannot see, at least not with the naked eye

Episode Host

Kania Greer, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow
Ryan Schroeder, Georgia Southern UniversityFollow

Produced by- Primary College

College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Produced by- Secondary College

College of Education

Files

Guest or Featured Researcher

Liz Sargent, Ph.D.

Description

Liz Sargent, Ph.D., is passionate about organisms you cannot see, at least not with the naked eye. Phytoplankton are microscopic organisms that live in watery environments [so...not Sheldon J. Plankton from SpongeBob...smaller on the food web]. These little plants are responsible for approximately 50% of all photosynthesis on earth, and to be honest, if you don’t know what they look like you should Google them [we’ll wait]. They are unquestionably unique, and grow external structures around them made of silica [glass] and chalk.

But that’s not the only thing microscopic that Sargent is studying these days. Since moving to Georgia, she has become very interested in microplastics including plastic shards, beads and fibers less than 0.5 cm. While not visible in the Georgia coastal waters we love, these microplastics are definitely there [lots of it, in fact]. Research is being done to determine what long term effects the presence of microplastics may have on fisheries [and therefore the local economy], but it’s too early to tell. What Sargent does know is that the microplastics are coming from us. The clothes that we wear, specifically fleece and polyester, go into the washing machine, which eventually ends up in the ocean and therefore in the food chain. On a larger scale, companies use plastic and plastic fibers in almost everything. So what can we do? What does this mean? Tune in to find out.

Length of Episode

25 minutes 22 seconds

Date of Episode

5-13-2021

File Format

.mp3

Keywords

Georgia Southern University, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, College of Education, Who Cares?, Organisms

Copyright

This work is archived and distributed under the repository's standard copyright and reuse license, available here. Under this license, end-users may copy, store, and distribute this work without restriction. For questions related to additional reuse of this work, please contact the copyright owner.

Disciplines

Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Source or Streaming Media

https://anchor.fm/cbss/episodes/Organisms-you-cannot-see--at-least-not-with-the-naked-eye-e10qk1r

Recommended Citation

Greer, Kania and Schroeder, Ryan, "Organisms you cannot see, at least not with the naked eye" (2021). Who Cares? Casual Conversations with Southern Scholars (2020-2022). 9.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/who-cares-podcast-cbss/9