Fate and Transport of Micro and Nanoplastics in Groundwater

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 field 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 field 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.