Rana Ozturk, a PhD student based at UKCEH Wallingford is currently undertaking her PhD which aims to quantify microplastic ingestion by birds of prey in the UK. Rana's supervisors are Stuart Black (University of Reading- Lead supervisor) with Co supervisors William Mills (University of Reading), Gbotemi Adediran (University of Leeds), and Alexander Robinson (UKCEH).
Currently,there are very few studies of microplastics in British birds, and none have been conducted on British birds of prey. Rana told us “The aim of my PhD is to address this knowledge gap using regurgitated pellets and digestive organs obtained from necroscopies. Microplastic particles in pellets and organs are identified and characterised using FT-IR spectroscopy. Utilising analytical techniques, I hope to contribute to improvements in methodology for microplastic identification in these mediums and help understand the impact of microplastic pollution on birds of prey in the UK." The PBMS is suppling bird tissues to help Rana in her study and look forward to reading the results
