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PACIFIC

PAthways of Chemicals Into Freshwaters and their ecological ImpaCts (PACIFIC)

Manufactured chemicals are essential for the maintenance of public health, food production, and quality of life, including a diverse range of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and personal care products. The use of these throughout society has led to increasing concentrations and diversity of chemical pollutants in the environment.

This project will focus on understanding the link between the sources of chemical pollutants and their pathways, fate, and ecological impacts in freshwater ecosystems.

This £1.6 million project will identify new approaches for understanding the impacts of micropollutants on freshwater ecosystems, with an emphasis on the microbial communities that underpin freshwater biogeochemical cycles and ecological health. Using a combination of genomics and functional assays, the project will develop tools to better diagnose and predict how the health of freshwater ecosystem will change in the future.

The project will:

  • Identify chemical pollutants that can modify the structure and function of freshwater microbial ecosystems
  • Understand the impacts that chemical pollutants have on the biogeochemical processes that freshwater microbes perform
  • Develop models and risk maps to predict the scale of chemical pollutant threats to river ecosystems
  • Work with regulatory, industry and charity partners to develop solutions to manage the impacts of chemicals on freshwaters.
  • Identify chemical pollutants that can modify the structure and function of freshwater microbial ecosystems
  • Understand the impacts that chemical pollutants have on the biogeochemical processes that freshwater microbes perform
  • Develop models and risk maps to predict the scale of chemical pollutant threats to river ecosystems
  • Work with regulatory, industry and charity partners to develop solutions to manage the impacts of chemicals on freshwaters
  • Forecast how patterns for risk to freshwater microbial ecosystem integrity across the catchment may be affected by climate, land use and socioeconomic changes in the future.

Field sites: the River Thames and Bristol Avon catchments, southern England, with locations chosen to coincide with Wastewater Treatment Works to understand how chemicals in sewage effluents contribute to chemical burden and ecological impacts across land use gradients.

Led by Dr Daniel Read, UK Centre of Ecology & Hydrology, including partners University of Bath, University of Oxford, and the Environment Agency.

 

Project webpage