Tiny plastic particles are making their way into seafood, drinking water, soil and air, raising concerns about their potential effects on human and environmental health. But where are they accumulating in Maine, and how much is there?
A new University of Maine research facility aims to help answer those questions, giving scientists, industries and communities across the state access to technology that can detect and measure microplastics.
Supported by a three-year National Science Foundation grant, the facility will expand Maine’s ability to investigate where microplastics are being found, measure their concentrations and identify areas where additional monitoring may be needed. The findings could help communities better understand environmental conditions and provide local officials with information to guide decisions about water quality and pollution.
Researchers also hope the information could eventually be made available to the public, allowing Mainers to see where microplastics are being detected in their communities and where gaps in monitoring remain.
“The goal here is to provide a microplastics instrumentation facility for UMaine, the University of Maine System, the state and beyond,” said distinguished professor Paul Mayewski, former director of UMaine’s Climate Change Institute and the project’s principal investigator.
Expanding access across Maine
Nearly 30 prospective users and partners have expressed interest in the facility, Mayewski said. They include researchers from across UMaine and its Darling Marine Center, as well as private businesses, aquaculture and fishing interests, environmental organizations and groups concerned with contamination in local waterways and food.
For Maine’s seafood industry and environmental organizations, the facility could provide access to testing that has previously been difficult to obtain in the state.
Mayewski expects most of the facility’s early work to focus on Maine, although the team also welcomes researchers from elsewhere in the United States and internationally.
The NSF award began Aug. 1 and is expected to run through July 2029. The project is part of the agency’s Major Research Instrumentation program, which supports the acquisition of advanced scientific equipment.
Mayewski is joined by co-principal investigators Margaret Estapa, an associate professor of oceanography, and Mariusz Potocki, a postdoctoral researcher. Other collaborators include Carl Tripp, a professor of chemistry, and Onur Apul, a former UMaine associate professor of civil and environmental engineering who is now at Penn State. Both are former co-principal investigators on the project.
Potocki is expected to operate the new microscope and oversee much of the sample analysis once the facility is running.
Advancing microplastics research capabilities
The instrument, known as a Fourier Transform Infrared microscope, can automatically scan relatively large areas and identify microplastics by their chemical composition. Older methods often require scientists to examine suspected plastic particles individually. The new technology will allow researchers to analyze samples more efficiently and produce larger amounts of data.
Researchers also plan to investigate how microplastics move through the environment, how people may be exposed to them through food, water and air, and how the particles interact with other contaminants, including PFAS, metals and pathogens.
UMaine currently lacks comparable microplastics instrumentation, Mayewski said, and similar equipment is rare elsewhere in Maine. The instrument is expected to arrive early next year.
Mayewski’s institute has previously developed public-facing tools that allow people to explore environmental data. He said a similar approach could eventually be used to share microplastics findings.
A broader picture of contamination across Maine will depend on collecting samples from enough locations over time. Public access to the findings could help residents and local officials recognize where additional monitoring is needed and encourage testing in communities where information is lacking.
The facility will also provide hands-on research opportunities for students and early-career scientists, supporting UMaine’s learner-centered R1 mission. Students will collect environmental samples, analyze results and eventually learn to operate the microscope.
By the end of the grant, the team hopes to establish a sustainable research facility that will give Maine’s communities, industries and researchers continued access to microplastics testing — and the information needed to identify gaps in environmental monitoring.
“Without monitoring in the environment, we wouldn’t understand a lot about what we do now with respect to what impacts and doesn’t impact our health,” Mayewski said.
Contact: David Nordman, david.nordman@maine.edu
