| Summary: | Human activity is driving global change. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion results in global effects including increases in temperatures as well as ocean acidification. Further, human-induced global change extends beyond carbon dioxide to pollution including microplastics. It is important to understand the impacts of global change and to optimize ways to mitigate it via technologies like biofuels. This thesis details devices and methods developed with the overall goal to enable experiments to increase this understanding. Specifically, this thesis presents devices and methods to (1) increase experimental throughput, enabling larger, multi-parameter experimental designs; (2) measure endpoints previously impractical to measure; and (3) inform laboratory experiments by improving the methods for obtaining data from environmental samples to set appropriate dosing levels. First, I developed a device which maps microalgae growth as a function of light and nutrients using a hydrogel-based concentration gradient generator to address experimental throughput in the biofuel context. Second, I developed a platform, incorporating a long-range aerogel-based gradient generator, a projector, and well plate compatibility to screen the effect of multiple environmental parameters on biota to further address experimental throughput. The third contribution is a digestible fluorescent coating for plastic particles that is stripped from the plastic upon ingestion by an organism; this can be used to determine if a plastic particle has been ingested in laboratory exposure experiments – providing the ability to measure cumulative plastic ingestion – a new endpoint. The last contribution is a method to bind iron nanoparticles to plastic in environmental samples enabling magnetic recovery, suited to recovering the smallest size fractions of microplastics from environmental samples for analysis– providing the ability to inform laboratory experiments. Overall, the four Chapters that make up the primary contributions of this thesis are technologies that allow experimenters to answer research questions in bioenergy and environmental science more efficiently. The methods and devices described in this thesis make technological progress but have limitations that prescribe caution when applying to new kinds of experiments. Nevertheless, with some adaptation, these technologies could further be applied to help answer several questions inside and outside of environmental science and bioenergy. Ph.D.
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