Katie is a Masters by Research Student at the University of Exeter. A collaborator of a GCRF funded program, Pacific Plastics: Science to Solutions, which aims to quantify the widespread plastic contamination of the Galápagos marine ecosystem, helping develop local and regional monitoring and management plans. Through this international project we aspire to reduce plastic input and wildlife impacts for this iconic archipelago. Her Masters research focuses on assessing plastic pollution in essential Ecuadorian mangrove systems and their role as plastic pollution sinks as well as the transfer of this anthropogenic pollutant through the food chain. Another aspect of her research involves comparing different techniques to analyse sea surface and beach plastics at different sites around the Galapagos.
Further research has focused on the sources of plastic pollution in the Galapagos, utilising beach macroplastic data to aid development of targeted mitigation.
