Undergraduate Student
Department of Environmental Science

Research interests: Wetland geochemistry and microplastics

Biography
I’m a third-year environmental science major who enjoys studying Earth’s past and present climate. I am particularly interested in learning about the impacts of anthropogenic pollutants on Earth’s systems.

Research
My research aims to investigate how microplastics may be altering wetland soil structure and natural greenhouse gas emissions in Elkhorn Slough. Past work (Rillig et. al. 2021, Sun et. al. 2020) has shown that the presence of microplastics in soil is linked to increased emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. With wetlands being one of the largest emitters of natural greenhouse gases, it is vital to study how microplastics may impact these emissions. I take biweekly soil samples from Elkhorn Slough to determine the presence of microplastics and utilize greenhouse gas emission data from eddy covariance flux towers to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.