Evaluating the Role of Microplastics as a Vector in Metal Cycling within the Thames Estuary

The ubiquity of microplastics in the natural environment is an area of growing concern. Once microplastics enter environmental systems they interact with surrounding pollutants such as metals. Microplastic and metal pollutants are thought to have detrimental effects on both human and ecosystem health as they are concentrated and transferred up the food chain.

Furthermore, it has recently been suggested that microplastics could act as vectors for metal pollutants. Hence, a greater understanding of the full contaminant potential of microplastics found in the natural environment is required.

This project will be conducted in the Thames Estuary, in which microplastics and the metals found sorbed on them will be analysed. Alongside this analysis potentially one of the first of its kind source-to-sink isotopic analyses will be conducted on the sorbed metals to evaluate associations with microplastics and seek to identify mutual sources of metals and microplastics.

Alongside these analyses the study will also seek to categorise pollutant emission sources (such as sewage outflows) hypothesised to synergistically release microplastics and metals.

Ultimately such analyses will unlock the potential to investigate the distribution and extent of both microplastic and metal emissions derived from differing sources, regardless of their proximity to the original source of emissions. With this research it would be possible to determine connections between metals and microplastics and their fate within the Thames estuary.