Effects of chemical mixtures, including in combination with other environmental stressors

Dylan J Ashbury - University of Sheffield

Project: The biodiversity-pollution-climate nexus: understanding the impacts of mixtures of chemicals on mixtures of freshwater species in a changing world 

Partner: Unilever

Biodiversity has been declining globally in recent decades, and these declines are pronounced in freshwater ecosystems. Despite covering less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, freshwater habitats support around 8% of described species, making them vital contributors to global biodiversity. A major driver of these declines is chemical pollution.

Matt Cato - Lancaster University

Project: Can antibiotics disrupt biogeochemical nitrogen cycling in the coastal ocean? 

Partner: Cefas

The growing use and accessibility of antibiotics for medicinal and agricultural purposes has meant larger quantities are making their way into coastal waters. Between 30-90% of antibiotic doses are excreted in humans and animals. 100% removal of antibiotics is impossible in conventional wastewater treatment plants, meaning the majority of antibiotics in wastewater is discharged into the environment. Furthermore, heavy use of antibiotics in the agricultural industry can lead to their transport into coastal zones via surface run-off. As a result, although labelled as micropollutants, the pseudo-persistent nature of antibiotics requires investigation on how they may be influencing biological processes in coastal environments.

Safia El-Amiri - Univeristy of Sheffield

Project: Evaluating the health of treescapes in polluted urban environments 

Partner: Syngenta

Abiotic stressors such as pollution exposure to NO2, PM and O3, water stress, drought, alter the biochemistry and physiology of flora resulting in change from the cellular level to the individual level. A range of fauna, particularly invertebrates, rely on urban trees for vital resources. However, not much is known about how changes in tree health impact the invertebrate communities they host. 

This project makes use of the Urban Tree Observatory (UTO), a network of instrumented trees across the city of Sheffield made up of 4 species, English Oak, Sycamore, Silver birch and Common lime. We aim to characterize tree health across an urbanisation gradient by measuring health parameters such as specific leaf area (SLA), stable-isotope ratios and nutritional quality.  

Charlotte Robison-Smith - Cardiff Univeristy

Project: Hidden costs of environmental pollutants: functional impacts on host-pathogen interactions 

Partner: Cefas

Disease in the host results from an unfavourable trifecta of host-pathogen-environment interactions, where pollution often provokes disease occurrence. Understanding the effects of these interactions in aquatic ecosystems can help to inform disease management in aquaculture and avoid epidemics through improved fish welfare.

Working with Cefas, this project focusses on how prevalent synthetic polymer pollution - microplastics and water-soluble polymers (WSPs) - impact disease susceptibility of commercially important fish species. WSPs are emerging contaminants of aquatic ecosystems but are also major additives used within aquaculture husbandry products, therefore this research aims to determine whether chemical substitution can benefit animal welfare and industry productivity.