Abigail Barrows

Last updated
Abigail P. W. Barrows
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known for microplastics research
Scientific career
Fields Marine science
InstitutionsAdventure Scientists

Abigail P. W. Barrows (born 1984) is an American marine research scientist [1] and advocate based in Maine. [2] Barrows directs microplastics research that is used to inform conservation-focused legislation, and she initiated the first baseline data map of microplastic pollution distribution in the waters off the coast of Maine. [3] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Barrows grew up in Stonington, Maine, a town on the island of Deer Isle, off the coast of Maine. [2] [4] From a teenager, she knew she loved the outdoors after participating in an OutwardBound trip. [5] She began to learn about and love the ocean which helped her pursue her career. In 2006, Barrows graduated with a bachelor's degree in zoology, with a focus on marine biology from the University of Tasmania, Australia. [5] After returning to Stonington, Maine, Barrows completed her master's degree in microplastics from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine in 2018. [6]

Career

Barrows studies plastic pollution in global waterways. [7] Barrows' biological studies led her to travel much of the world including Papua New Guinea, the Himalaya, and South and Central America. [8] She later focused her studies on microplastics, having recognized plastic pollution as a global issue. [9] [10] Barrows has leveraged her research to help pass legislation to reduce plastic consumption. [11]

In 2011, Barrows took a job coordinating educational programming at the Shaw Institute where she focused on environmental health. [2] She later directed global microplastic pollution research from 2013 to 2017, and consequently published research in collaboration with the Shaw Institute. [12] In December 2017, Abby played a part in accomplishing the enacting of a bill that would cease microbead containing products from being made within the state of Maine. [13] She has published 12 scientific papers, where her work on microplastic prevalence has been cited hundreds of times. [1] Burrows worked with Adventure Scientists, an organization that links researchers with outdoorsmen and women. [14] This collaboration yielded the largest known and most diverse microplastics dataset as of 2019. [15] [4] Her work has identified that plastic pollution is present in New York’s Hudson River, and in popular bottled water brands - specifically, an average of 325 plastic particles were found for every litre of water being sold, in an analysis of 259 bottles, across 19 locations, in nine countries. [4] [16] [17]

Barrows is currently the owner of Deer Isle Oyster Company, based in Stonington, Maine, where she is trying to develop and create plastic-free aquaculture gear, and operates an oyster aquaculture farm, Long Cove Sea Farm. [18] [19] [4] This includes working on prototypes of wooden oyster cages, selling oysters in compostable beechwood bags, and testing a mycelium buoy, a fungal alternative to a plastic buoy. [20] In 2021, Barrows was awarded a $15,000 grant by the USDA's Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program to identify ecologically friendly materials for aquaculture systems. [21]

Selected bibliography

References

  1. 1 2 "Abigail Barrows". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Kevin, Brian (2021-09-19). "In a Maine Fishing Village, a Microplastics Researcher Reenvisions Aquaculture". Down East Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  3. ↑ Lee, Vivian (2020-05-07). "An Unexpected Dinner Guest: Marine Plastic Pollution Hides a Neurological Toxin in Our Food". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Abigail Barrows MPhil '18 is at the Center of Worldwide Microfiber Study". www.coa.edu. Retrieved 2025-02-24.
  5. 1 2 Carne, Gabriella (2017-02-10). "Abi Barrows - Fighting Plastic Pollution with Citizen Science". scu.edu/ethics/. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  6. ↑ Ortiz, Victoria. "Oceanic Society Expedition". adventurescientists.org. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  7. ↑ "What should be prioritized to prevent plastic pollution? Science, education or legal policy? – | be Waste Wise" . Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  8. ↑ "Marine Scientist Abby Barrows talk: Microplastic Pollution in Aquatic Environments". PenBay Pilot. 14 January 2021. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  9. ↑ "Abby Barrows - Be Waste Wise". wastewise.be. 2016-05-01. Archived from the original on 2016-05-12. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  10. ↑ "Marine environment microfiber contamination: Global patterns and the diversity of microparticle origins". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-01-09.
  11. ↑ "Be Waste Wise". wastewise.be. Archived from the original on 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
  12. ↑ "Global Microplastics Initiative". adventurescientists.org. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
  13. ↑ University, Santa Clara. "Abby Barrows". www.scu.edu. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
  14. ↑ "Citizen Adventurers". www.npr.org. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  15. ↑ Difrisco, Emily. "Unseen Plastics In Our Water". www.earthisland.org. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
  16. ↑ "This New York River Dumps Millions of Fabric Microfibers Into the Ocean Daily [PBS NEWSHOUR]". www.coa.edu. Retrieved 2025-02-24.
  17. ↑ Readfearn, Graham (2018-03-15). "WHO launches health review after microplastics found in 90% of bottled water". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2025-02-24.
  18. ↑ "Deer Isle Oyster Company". Deer Isle Oyster Company. Retrieved 2025-02-03.
  19. ↑ "Abigail Barrows, College of the Atlantic, Department of Biology". ResearchGate. February 2018.
  20. ↑ Lie-Nielsen, Kirsten (2024-07-30). "Meet the Mycologist Stopping Ocean Plastics, One Mushroom Buoy at a Time". Modern Farmer. Retrieved 2025-02-24.
  21. ↑ "Final report for FNE21-988 - SARE Grant Management System". projects.sare.org. Retrieved 2025-04-13.
  22. ↑ Barrows, Abigail P. W.; Christiansen, Katie S.; Bode, Emma T.; Hoellein, Timothy J. (2018-12-15). "A watershed-scale, citizen science approach to quantifying microplastic concentration in a mixed land-use river" . Water Research. 147: 382–392. Bibcode:2018WatRe.147..382B. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2018.10.013. ISSN   0043-1354. PMID   30336341.
  23. ↑ Barrows, Abigail P. W.; Neumann, Courtney A.; Berger, Michelle L.; Shaw, Susan D. (2017-03-02). "Grab vs. neuston tow net: a microplastic sampling performance comparison and possible advances in the field" . Analytical Methods. 9 (9): 1446–1453. doi:10.1039/C6AY02387H. ISSN   1759-9679.
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