Faculty Advisor

Dr Manuel Montano

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Keywords

Senior Project

Abstract

The motivation for my project was a deep curiosity on the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots, specifically how that relationship might interact with microplastics that seep into soil environments. This felt like a very important and relevant thing to investigate because plastic is a huge part of our daily lives and in turn, microplastics are a huge part of our natural environment. The danger of microplastics is that they are invisible to the naked eye, so we are unable to easily see the direct effects they have on the soil and the microorganisms and plants living within the soil. Not only do microplastics directly impact the living aspects of a soil environment, but they also affect the geological chemistry of the soil; this sort of pathway and the physical changes that could be observed from microplastic addition to the soil is what I first looked at so that I could get a baseline for any further experimentation. The idea was to eventually see how mycorrhizal fungi interacted with microplastic;

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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