Page 4 - Shimadzu Journal vol.7 Issue1

Insight from Customer

Interview with Dr. Alan Jamieson

We interviewed Dr. Alan Jamieson from Newcastle University. His research is focused on the development and
application of the environmental field, especially on measurement of the impact of microplastic in the ocean.

Doctor Jamieson, thank you very much for spending some perception that the deep sea is somehow exempt from what we do
time for this interview. At first, could you outline the on land or near the surface. The idea of ‘out of sight, out of mind’
research and let us know what discovery and achievement simply doesn’t work. Anything that goes into the ocean will eventually
have been made so far? sink, when it sinks it enters the deep sea and has nowhere else to go
My main research focus is the exploration of the deepest parts of the and therefore only ever accumulate more. The second goal is assess
ocean, namely the ‘hadal zone’ which means anywhere deeper than the level in which this might affecting animals and ecosystem that we
6000 metres. There are usually large ultra-deep trenches that until still don’t really understand. Perhaps the more concerning aspect of
recently we knew very little about. Our main goals are to study the all this is that we have lost the window to study these ecosystems in a
ecology, habitats and connectivity between different trench pristine condition, clearly they are already contaminated and it only
now were are regularly studying them.
communities and we have been really successful in having studied nine
of these deep trenches, including the deepest place on Earth. In the
process we have amassed a large sample archive, particularly samples
Could you tell us why you chose Shimadzu as your
of the crustacea amphipoda (hoppers). A couple of years ago we partner when you established this new lab?
thought it would be interesting to investigate anthropogenic impacts
at the greatest ocean depths. We did a study showing extraordinary We came in this rather naively as it wasn’t something we normally did.
high levels of persistent organic pollutants (PCBs and PBDEs) in the We were trying to use an FTIR facility within the Chemistry
deepest samples. This was shocking and gain a huge international department to examine what materials these tiny fibers were but it
interest in the media. During that time many people were asking if became clear early on it was not the right machine for the job. The
these hadal animals showed any signs of having ingested plastic, which University is a long standing customer and user of Shimadzu
is of course a very concerning and hot topic at the moment. Having technology and our technicians put me on to Dan Parnaby, our
worked with Shimadzu we established that a saddening high level of Shimadzu sales representative, to talk about how they could help.
these animals from 6 of the deepest trenches in world had indeed Dan was extremely helpful and put me in touch with Bob Keighley at
ingested plastics and through collaboration with Shimadzu in Milton the Milton Keynes facility and after long conversations about we were
Keynes, UK, we were able to identify the materials as well. trying to do and what Bob wanted to do in terms of demonstrating
Shimadzu capability we teamed up for this project. Also Sky News
were very keen on using this research as part of their Ocean Rescue
How are Shimadzu instruments helping you in your research?
campaign and so we invited their film crew to the Shimadzu facility on
the day to film us doing the research live.
The main driver of the plastic as full ocean depth study was firstly to
simple demonstrate the reach of mankinds activities and shake the

4