Journal Articles

Taylor, M.L., Gwinnett, C., Robinson, L.F. & Woodall, L.C. (2016) ‘Plastic microfibre ingestion by deep-sea organisms’ Scientific Reports

“Both macro and micro-plastics are found in the ocean, but as yet little is known about their ultimate fate and their impact on marine ecosystems. In this study we present the first evidence that microplastics are already becoming integrated into deep-water organisms. By examining organisms that live on the deep-sea floor we show that plastic microfibres are ingested and internalised by members of at least three major phyla with different feeding mechanisms”.

Woodall, L.C., Gwinnett, C., Packer, M., Thompson, R.C., Robinson, L.F. & Paterson, G.L.J. (2015) ‘Using a forensic science approach to minimize environmental contamination and to identify microfibres in marine sediments’ Marine Pollution Bulletin. 95(1) pp. 40-46 

“There is growing evidence of extensive pollution of the environment by microplastic, with microfibres representing a large proportion of the microplastics seen in marine sediments. Since microfibres are ubiquitous in the environment, evaluating microplastic pollution is difficult. Incidental contamination is highly likely unless strict control measures are employed. We describe methods developed to minimise the amount of incidental post-sampling contamination when quantifying marine microfibre pollution. It shows that our protocol, adapted from the field of forensic fibre examination, reduces fibre abundance by 90% and enables the quick screening of fibre populations”.

Jones Z, Gwinnett.C, Jackson.A (2018) The Effect of Tape Type, Taping Method, Tape Storage Method on Retrieval Rate of Fibres from Different Surfaces. Science and Justice.

.C. Woodall, A.D. Jungblut, K. Hopkins, A. Hall, L. F. Robinson, C. Gwinnett, G. L. J. Paterson. Deep-sea anthropogenic macrodebris harbours rich and diverse communities of bacteria and archaea, PlosOne.