Sarah Warrack - Environment and Geography - University of Manitoba

As an undergraduate student, Sarah was awarded an NSERC-USRA to quantify the densities of microplastics in Lake Winnipeg using samples collected by the NAMAO. Sarah discovered that microplastic densities in Lake Winnipeg are comparable to Lake Erie. From there, Sarah worked to understand the microplastic densities leading into and out of Lake Winnipeg where she found that wastewater treatment plants were a point source for microplastics (she even won an award for her paper!). Sarah's curiosity continued, which lead to her beginning her Master's degree under the supervision of Mark Hanson and Michael Rennie (with the support of an NSERC - Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship) where she is studying the fate of microplastics within Lake Winnipeg. Sarah uses mesocosm tanks as surrogate wetlands and doses the tanks with microplastics and measures the microplastics using manta trawl net sampling and organic material digests to quantify the microplastics in each of her samples. Sarah will be moving on to be an Education and Outreach Officer at the IISD Experimental Lakes Area. You can follow Sarah's future work through LinkedIn or on the lab website!