Seafloor microplastic hotspots controlled by deep-sea circulation

Published in Science, this pioneering study shows how microplastics are transported by deep-sea currents, and accumulate in deep-sea sediments.

Direct Evidence That Microplastics Are Transported to the Deep Sea by Turbidity Currents

The first study of its kind directly sampling a turbidity current carrying microplastics at >1 km water depth.

I'm a geologist and environmental scientist, and I lead the 'Plastics in the Natural Environment' theme of the Manchester Environmental Research Group.

I am interested in deep-marine sedimentary environments - processes and products of sediment transport, both natural and anthropogenic.

My PhD (Leeds, 2007) was on submarine channel-levee systems which I investigated with fieldwork examining the Cretaceous deep-marine strata of Baja California, Mexico, and flume-tank modelling of turbidity currents. 

I lead SedResQ - we work on a range of topics broadly revolving around the transport of sediments from terrestrial environments to the coast and their transfer into deep-marine basins; a central theme is the linkage of gravity-driven sedimentological processes to the deposition of natural and anthropogenic sediments and their preservation in the stratigraphic record.

I am Executive Editor for the new Diamond Open Access Journal Sedimentologika and I was previously Editor-in Chief of the journal Sedimentology (2018-2022)

Current PhD Students:

Zesheng Xu co-supervised by Bart van Dongen, Holly Shiels and Mike Clare. Transport of PFAS (Forever Chemicals) in deep-marine environments.

Ziqi Zhang co-supervised by Katie Maier, Mike Clare, Rhodri Jerrett and Pete Ryan. Microplastic in Kaikōura Canyon and Hikurangi Channel, New Zealand.

Xiaotong Ji co-supervised by Rhodri Jerrett and Pete Ryan. Stratigraphic records of atmospheric microplastic transport in highland and lowland peat bogs.

Leah Costello Lead supervisor: Dr Holly Shiels. Marine microplastic pollution and effects on turtles.

Joshua Marsh co-supervised by Anna Pontén, Lin Ma and Kevin Taylor. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of deep-marine lobe systems (Banaston system, Ainsa, Spain)

Daniel Ronald co-supervised by Lin Ma, Chris Jackson and Kevin Taylor. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of deep-marine lobe systems (Banaston system, Ainsa, Spain)

Faisal Abbasi co-supervised by Lin Ma and Kevin Taylor. Forties Sandstone Member as a site for carbon storage.

Samuel Scott. Lead supervisor: Stephen Flint. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of deep-marine lobe systems for carbon stoarge (Tanqa Karoo, S. Africa).

Completed PhD Students:

Nur Azeyanti Binti Norhashim (2025). Lead supervisor: Dr Holly Shiels. Microplastics in shallow marine environments: distribution and ecotoxicological effects on benthic fauna

Max Bouwmeester (2025) co-supervised By Steve Flint and Dave Hodgson. Submarine conduits are long term sediment routing systems.

Lauren Clarehugh (2024) co-supervised by Mads Huuse, Dave Hodgson, Paul Spencer. Controls on clastic injectites from the Palaeogene of the Norwegian Continental Shelf and the Vocontian Basin, S. France.

Will Taylor (2024) Lead supervisor Prof Dave Hodgson: Modelling the sedimentology, and stratigraphic architecture of submarine channel margin systems

Edward Keavney (2024) Lead supervisor Prof Dave Hodgson Spilling into confinement: submarine slope valleys as pollutant and carbon sinks.

Ashley Ayckbourne (2023) lead supervisor: Dr Rhodri Jerrett. Controls of mass wasting on sedimentation processes and heterogeneity in slope mudstone reservoirs.

Timothy Wigan (2023) Lead supervisor Prof Chris Jackson: subsurface analysis of deep-marine lobe systems.

Isaac Odeh (2022) (lead supervisor Prof Chris Jackson). Deep-water sedimentary systems around active salt diapirs.

Ander Martinez-Donate Gomez (2022) co-supervised by Prof Chris Jackson (Imperial), Prof Dave Hodgson (Leeds). Working on submarine lobe deposits in the Neuquén Basin, Argentina, and Ainsa Basin, Spain.

Zoë Cumberpatch (2021) co-supervised by Prof Chris Jackson (Imperial), Prof Dave Hodgson (Leeds) and Dr Ben Kilhams. Discerning halokinetic from autocyclic sequences in deep-marine sedimentary systems – the Bakio salt diapir.

Jefferson Nwoko: (2020) (co-supervised by Prof Mads Huuse). Large-scale mass transport deposits and complexes: formative processes and their role in sediment gravity flow routing. Insights from the Taranaki Basin, offshore New Zealand.

Euan Soutter (2020) (funded by NERC CDT; co-supervised by Prof Mads Huuse) Deep-marine reservoir heterogeneity in steep-sided minibasins – influence of basin physiography on sedimentological processes and basin-fill character. 

Ross Ferguson (2020) (co-supervised by Drs Rufus Brunt, Joris Eggenhuisen (Utrecht), Ole Martinsen, Edwin Schomacker and Simon Barker). Deep-marine channel evolution: basin-ward propagation of submarine slope channels.

Arne Fuhrmann (2020) (co-supervised by Drs Rufus Brunt, Ole Martinsen, Edwin Schomacker and Simon Barker). Allogenic vs autogenic controls on reservoir distribution and quality in deep-marine channel systems.

Dan Bell: (2019) Co-supervised by Prof Steve Flint and Anna Pontén). Prediction of reservoir properties from processes and architecture in deep-water clastic systems. 

Larissa Hansen: (2017) University of Aberdeen. Lead Supervisor Prof Ben Kneller: Submarine channel-related thin bedded turbidites

Jochem Bijkerk: (2015) University of Leeds/BGS. Lead Supervisor Prof. Paul Wignall. Glacio-eustatic controls on sedimentary sequences: a field and physical modelling based study.

Sarah Southern: (2015) University of Leeds. Lead Supervisor Prof. Bill McCaffrey. Slope to basin evolution of a turbidite system in a bathymetrically restricted basin, Carboniferous, UK.