Meet the Isle of Wight researcher who has found shocking amounts of microplastics in the River Medina.

Liberty Turrell, who is from the Isle of Wight, conducted the research for her undergraduate dissertation at the University of Manchester.

She found 2,147 microplastic pieces on average per kilogram of dried sediment across 16 mudflat samples taken from the Medina Estuary.

The story made the County Press front page today (Friday). Read it here.

Liberty's report uncovered some alarming findings about microplastic pollution in the Island estuary (Image: IWCP)

We spoke to Liberty this week.

She said: "It was a massive shock. When I was conducting all the lab analysis, I was worried I wasn't going to find any microplastics.

"Having identified a significant quantity I was so shocked.

"This is an environment only 15 minutes down the road from me, so it's quite upsetting and sad to hear that it's affected by such a significant pollution issue."

Liberty was inspired by her dissertation supervisor, Professor Jamie Woodward, who has researched microplastic pollution in the River Tame in Greater Manchester.

She said: "There's not been much research into estuaries, especially in the UK.

"Microplastic research tends to focus on high energy environments like rivers and beaches and coastal systems, so that's another reason why I focused on estuaries because they are quite understudied.

"They form that transition zone between river-marine and marine environments and the low-energy nature is very interesting.

"The microplastics can accumulate there, they aren't flushed out as fast, so they kind of serve as a sink."

Liberty, a volunteer for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, has worked for the Marine Conservation Society since graduating.

She was the administrator for the Great British Beach Clean, the charity's flagship event which happened in September.

"It's all about beach cleaning across the UK and recording the types of litter we find on our beaches.

"The Marine Conservation Society use this data to then campaign for change.

"I've absolutely loved that position.

"It is coming to an end now unfortunately but it's just been amazing to feel like I've contributed towards something really important."