Plastic pellet pollution: establishing safe and proportionate clean up responses

The research generated by this exciting transdisciplinary PhD will be at the cutting edge of work to address plastic pellet pollution in the marine environment, with direct relevance to global policy.

The overall aim of this PhD is to provide a robust evidence base for decision making around clean-up of plastic pellets in intertidal marine environments. This will be delivered by five interrelated research questions: What is currently known about plastic pellet pollution in the marine environment?

How effective are the various options for clean-up at removing plastic pellets? Are there unintended environmental consequences of clean-up? What are the social and economic costs of clean-up operations?

What are appropriate guidelines for pellet spill clean-up in different intertidal environments, and what should be the priorities for management of spills?

The successful candidate will receive training in ecological, economic and social research methods, statistical packages (R, NVivo), QGIS, and in how to engage with and communicate science to a range of stakeholders including regulators and policymakers.

The project is stepwise and will be undertaken in chapters with each component lasting for 6-9 months, except for RQs 2&3 which will be complimentary and are likely to run concurrently. The team will support you to develop publishable content from each chapter.