Open Research Europe presents an interview with Dr. Win Cowger, a researcher at The Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research (USA) and Gateway Co-Advisor of the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway on Open Research Europe.
Community Gateways are dedicated hubs within Open Research Europe to bring together all content related to a specific area of research.
This Community Gateway focuses on interdisciplinary work across the Earth and Environmental Sciences field, incorporating the study of the earth’s surface, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and environmental system processes.
Work in the Gateway analyzes how the physical, chemical, and biological systems of Earth interact with one another, and welcomes research that uses evidence from the past to understand the present and predict the future of earth systems.
Read on to find out more about the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway and our Guest Advisor.
What is your research area and how does it relate to the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway?
I study plastic pollution and how it moves around in earth systems – the biosphere, the geosphere, the cryosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere.
I specialize in advancing science on transport and the fate of refuse in watersheds and river flow. If we can track the journey of refuse, we can identify solutions to plastic pollution and assess their effectiveness.
This is a key concern in Earth and Environmental Sciences, and research in this area spans many of the disciplines of the Gateway and related Collections.
What are the biggest challenges of being a researcher in your field?
I often deal with environmental data on natural systems which are extremely complex to understand and to measure.
I also study environmental problems in society, and sometimes it can be extremely emotionally draining to fully understand and explain the impacts of the pollution that we create.
What are the major questions your research area tries to answer?
I try to identify solutions to plastic pollution. There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer to pollution. Anywhere you go, some solutions may be better than others.
Many people in my field, including me, are trying to develop better methods for detecting and characterizing plastic in the environment. Current methods are too cumbersome and costly to scale to the level of monitoring we will need to adequately characterize the problem.
Why is open science important to you and researchers in your field?
Open data, open access publications, open science, and open source are all necessary to solve the problem of plastic pollution.
We need massive scales of collaboration between researchers to meet this huge challenge. It’s really the only way we can effectively conduct our science and address the problem.
Are there any challenges to participating in open science within your research area?
We recently published a study investigating how often people share data in my field. Currently, our field shares data in about 50% of publications. That means 50% of datasets cannot be built upon without redoing the entire study.
It’s very concerning, but there is hope. Things are getting better, and people are sharing data more and more every year.
Discover research in the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway
Some of the impactful work published within the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway include:
- A Data Note by Welch et al. which describes a methodology for converting data from the Drug Wholesale Statistics database to an ecotoxicological resource, providing a necessary tool for environmental risk assessment.
- A Method Article by Baartman et al. that details a system that was developed to measure sulfur isotopes in samples of air using Gas Chromatography-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (GC-IRMS).
- A Research Article by Sanders et al. that compares the climate change adaption measures taken by Poland and the Netherlands in the Gdansk and Rotterdam deltas.
Explore the Earth & Environmental Sciences Community Gateway today.
