Application Deadline: 08 June 2025
Details
Microplastics (synthetic polymers <5mm) and nanoplastics (<1mm) are now known to be omnipresent in the environment and have been detected in the world’s water bodies, sediments, soils and atmosphere. Recent evidence of micro- and nanoplastics (MnP) in soils and groundwater raises severe concerns for agricultural and water industries, food manufacturers, regulators, environmental interest groups and citizens. Private and public sectors require detailed understanding of environmental and public health risks posed by MnP in soils and groundwater. This includes the assessment of MnP impacts on crucial ecosystem functions, such as soil fertility or the natural attenuation potential of pollutants in groundwater, as well as the development of effective solutions to reduce public health risks due to exposure from groundwater resources or food uptake of MnP and leaching contaminants.
This PhD project will analyse the fate, transport and impacts of MnP from soils to groundwater to develop solutions to reduce the environmental and public health risks posed by MnP in groundwater. The PhD will therefore investigate potential risks of MnP, their additives and adsorbed pollutants that can impact the soil and groundwater microbiome with potentially drastic consequences for water quality and the natural attenuation capacity of groundwater aquifers.
Following an interdisciplinary multi-method approach, this PhD project will develop and integrate eld and laboratory experimental capacity with numerical modelling tools to provide detailed understanding of the transport mechanisms and time scales of soil and groundwater MnP fluxes and interactions due to properties of MnP coronas. It will quantify aquifer type and land use specific MnP transit and peak arrival times for a wide range of currently circulating synthetic polymers, characterise MnP properties encountered in the eld as well as novel biodegradable polymers. The quantification of travel and transit time dependent leaching of selected plastic additives and adsorbed pollutants will enable identification of material property and context dependent risk profiles that will assist private and public sectors in understanding environmental and public health risks posed by MnP.
For further information on this project and details of how to apply to it please visit https://centa.ac.uk/apply/how-to-apply/
Funding notes:
This project is offered through the CENTA2 DTP, with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Funding covers an annual stipend, tuition fees (at home-fee level) and Research Training Support Grant.
Our project-based studentships are open to all applicants who meet the academic requirements (at least a 2:1 at UK BSc level or at least a pass at UK MSc level or equivalent).
For further information please visit https://centa.ac.uk/.
References
Group 8460, Grouped object Drummond J.D., Schneidewind U., Li A., Hoellein T.J., Krause S., Packman A.I. 2022. Microplastic accumulation in riverbed sediment via hyporheic exchange from headwaters to mainstems. Science Advances. DOI:10.1126/sciadv.abi9305
Group 8461, Grouped object Margenat H., Drummond J., Nel H.A., Stonedahl S., Sabater F., Krause S. 2022. Hydrologic controls on the accumulation of different sized microplastics in the streambed sediments downstream of a wastewater treatment plant (Catalonia, Spain). Environmental Research Letters. In print
Group 8462, Grouped object Nel H.A, Chetwynd A., Kelly C., Stark C., Valsami-Jones E., Krause S., Lynch I. 2021. An untargeted TGA-FTIR-GC-MS approach for plastic polymer identi cation. Environmental Science and Technology.
Group 8463, Grouped object Kukkola, A., Lynch, I., Sambrook-Smith, G., Nel, H.A., Krause, S. 2021. Microplastic uptake and propagation in freshwater food-webs – current knowledge and key gaps. Environment International. 152, 106504. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2021.106504
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Group 8465, Grouped object Nel A.H., Naidoo T.; Akindele E.; Nhiwatiwa T.; FADARE O.; Krause S. 2021.
Collaboration and infrastructure are needed to develop an African perspective on micro(nano)plastic pollution. Environmental Research Letters. 16 (2). 021002
Group 8594, Grouped object Drummond J.D., Nel H.A., Packman A.I., Krause S. 2020. Signi cance of Hyporheic Exchange for Predicting Microplastic Fate in Rivers. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. 7(10), 727-732. DOI:10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00595
Group 8595, Grouped object Krause S. 2020. Science based solutions to plastic pollution. One Earth. 2 (1), 5-7. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.01.004
Group 8596, Grouped object Nel H.A., Chetwynd A.J., Kelleher L., Lynch I., Mans eld I., Margenat H., Onoja S., Goldberg Oppenheimer P., Sambrook Smith G.H., Krause S. 2020. Detection limits are central to improve reporting standards when using Nile Red for microplastic quanti cation. Chemosphere. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127953.
Group 8597, Grouped object Nel, H. A.; Sambrook Smith G.H., Harmer R., Sykes R. Lynch I., Krause S. 2020. Citizen science reveals microplastic hotspots within tidal estuaries and the remote Scilly Islands, United Kingdom. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 161(PartB). 111776. 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111776
Group 8598, Grouped object Nel H., Krause S., Sambrook Smith G.H., Lynch I., 2019. Simple yet e ective modi cations to the operation of the Sediment Isolation Microplastic unit to avoid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) contamination. MethodsX, 6, 26562661, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2019.11.007.
Group 8599, Grouped object Tibbets J., Krause S., Lynch I., Sambrook Smith G. (2018). Microplastic patterns in a UK urban headwater river. Water, 10, 1597.
