Environmental toxicologist Christina Pasparakis, who is an assistant professor based at Bodega Marine Laboratory, is the winner of the 2024 UC Davis Award for Innovation and Creative Vision. 

The prize is funded by Susie and alum Riley Bechtel and supports outstanding non-tenured early career faculty. It comes with a $40,000 research award that Pasparakis plans to use to launch a long-term community-based microplastic monitoring program in the Bodega Marine Reserve. 

“Getting this grant has given me a boost and now allows me to get this idea kickstarted and get everything we need to move forward,” said Pasparakis who runs the Toxicology, Physiology, Ecology and Conservation, or ToPEC, Lab. 

Microplastics can be intentionally produced for use in personal care products or created when plastics degrade into fragments. The tiny, ubiquitous pollutants can adversely affect human health and aquatic ecosystems. The money will help fund the purchase of specialized equipment and materials, as well as support a student for one year. 

Looking at protected areas

While microplastics have been studied in urban waters, little is known about how the pollutants affect protected marine areas. The ToPEC lab seeks to better understand the source, movement and composition of microplastics, and this spring will launch the monitoring program in the Bodega Marine Reserve collecting algae and a common snail species found in the area. 

The lab has an existing partnership with the California Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, or CCFRP, that will enable them to obtain rockfish samples while doing other sustainable fisheries research and take those back to the lab for analysis.

Rockfish are predators and can live up 200 years, which means they are more likely to bioaccumulate plastics and toxins. 

“This species is ideal for studying how microplastics can build up across various food chain levels, giving insights into toxic substance accumulation,” Pasparakis said. 

She also hopes to attract volunteers, community members and others to participate in collecting samples, while in turn teaching them about microplastics in the environment. 

Pasparakis joined UC Davis as a postdoctoral scholar in 2020 and became an assistant professor in 2022. She teaches about aquatic toxicology and environmental stress in marine organisms.