Undergraduate Biology Student Researcher: Rianon Wallace-Demby

Rianon is a KU senior studying Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, her undergraduate research focuses on the study of Microplastics & its effects on Freshwater Organisms.

Her research looks to answer 3 questions:

1. Where do microplastics get lodged in an organism after ingestion?
2. How much microplastic get ingested by Freshwater Organisms?
3. Does color impact ingestion rates?

Rianon hopes this research will help fill in the gap between Freshwater and Marine Biology Studies.

Rianon was able to connect with labs and mentors through a campus program called KU-WISTEMM. It was through a mentor’s research in microplastics that she found an unfinished project originally started by KU students Sydney Bolin and Rachel Bowes, that looked into the correlation between the amount of microplastics available in an invertebrate’s environment and the amount ingested by the organism. under the Project Investigator Dr. Jim Thorp

Rianon had the opportunity to design her own investigation around that unfinished research, with the desire to complete the original project and research and answer her own questions in relation to it. She wanted to continue this research because “[she] felt it was a really important topic.”.

What does your research look line on a day-to-day basis? What do you spend most of your time doing?

Beginning her project started with reading a lot of literature: scientific papers and reports to better understand the work being completed in the field currently and what had been found in the past. It helped Rianon fill in the gaps in her knowledge and better prepare for starting her own research. Once she had a strong foundation, she completed a series of tests using Daphnia magna, a type of plankton. This model organism allowed her to track microplastics, as they moved through the animal’s digestive tract.

Later in December (about a month after this interview took place) Rianon plans to utilize the digestion protocol, to get a true measurement of how much harmful plastic had been ingested by the plankton.

Have you made any discoveries or findings?

Over the course of her research, Rianon found that microplastics get lodged in the upper GI tract and Gills, causing the animals to suffocate before digestion can occur.

What do you plan to do after you graduate from KU?

After graduating from KU Rianon plans to attend the University of Miami and study Marine Biology & Ecology. She has been accepted into a lab that is investigating coral immunity and coral’s responses to stressors, like the Skittle-D disease. The lab is also focused on coral reef conservation. Rianon’s intention is to get a PhD, and though her masters will be in tropical species she is interested in pursuing scholarship in Arctic biology.

“Imposter Syndrome is hard to work through and you may feel like you don’t have a seat at the table, and you don’t belong. But you do. You have a seat, and you have every right to be there. It has taken me a while to understand that.”