CEH Pollution
Lead Research Organisation:
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Claus Svendsen (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Adams J
(2018)
The contribution of algae to freshwater dissolved organic matter: implications for UV spectroscopic analysis
in Inland Waters
Aramrun P
(2018)
Selecting passive dosimetry technologies for measuring the external dose of terrestrial wildlife.
in Journal of environmental radioactivity
Baas J
(2018)
Dynamic energy budget models in ecological risk assessment: From principles to applications.
in The Science of the total environment
Beresford NA
(2020)
Radionuclide transfer to wildlife at a 'Reference site' in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and resultant radiation exposures.
in Journal of environmental radioactivity
Bialk-Bielinska A
(2018)
Effects of five sulphonamides on duckweed (Lemna minor) after prolonged exposure time and their dependency on photoradiation.
in The Science of the total environment
Bradshaw C
(2018)
Education and training in radioecology during the EU-COMET project-successes and suggestions for the future.
in Journal of radiological protection : official journal of the Society for Radiological Protection
Charlton MB
(2018)
Mapping eutrophication risk from climate change: Future phosphorus concentrations in English rivers.
in The Science of the total environment
Garnier-Laplace J
(2018)
COMET strongly supported the development and implementation of medium-term topical research roadmaps consistent with the ALLIANCE Strategic Research Agenda.
in Journal of radiological protection : official journal of the Society for Radiological Protection
Hanamoto S
(2018)
The different fate of antibiotics in the Thames River, UK, and the Katsura River, Japan.
in Environmental science and pollution research international
Kashparov V
(2018)
Spatial datasets of radionuclide contamination in the Ukrainian Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
in Earth System Science Data
| Description | All reporting of outcomes and impact has now been subsumed under the new National Capability Awards, specifically grants LTSS UK-SCAPE (NE/R016429/1) and LTS-ODA SUNRISE (NE/R000131/1) and will be reported under these for all future years. |
| Exploitation Route | All reporting of outcomes and impact has now been subsumed under the new National Capability Awards, specifically grants LTSS UK-SCAPE (NE/R016429/1) and LTS-ODA SUNRISE (NE/R000131/1) and will be reported under these for all future years. |
| Sectors | Chemicals Environment Government Democracy and Justice |
| Description | Establishment of a UK Environmental Specimen Bank CEH have established an Environmental Specimen Bank to create a fully catalogued archive housing CEH's own physical samples of soil, fish tissue, predatory birds and honey. This archive will underpin knowledge on the fate and effects of pollutants in the environment which can be used to develop mitigation outcomes such as a change in UK policy on chemical uses. An example includes the use of barn owl tissues from the specimen bank to monitor changes in the exposure of this sentinel species to anticoagulant rodenticides following implementation of the UK Anticoagulant Rodenticide Stewardship programme. The aim of stewardship is to reduce the exposure of non-target wildlife and, if successful, would be reflected by a decrease in rodenticide residues in barn owls and other wildlife. Monitoring to validating predictions of impact caused by emissions from power plants and refineries operators of power stations and refineries who have "opted in" to the EU Large Plant Combustion Directive (LCPD) are required by the Environment Agency (EA) to undertake monitoring of acidifying and eutrophying deposition and ecological effects", to meet operating permit improvement conditions. As part of a competitively won contract, we assessed sulphur and nitrogen deposition loads, soil chemistry and vegetation community composition between 2012 and 2015 at 7 bog and heathland Sites of Scientific Interest downwind of major emission sources. Vegetation assemblages at the sites reflected some of the most acidic bogs and heaths in the UK. Nevertheless, recent large reductions in sulphur deposition may account for why current acid deposition loads are below UK critical loads thresholds for bogs and heaths respectively. Most positive indicators of bog or heath habitat condition according to Common Standards Monitoring criteria were present at sites, although the occurrence of the sensitive lichen genus Cladonia sp. declined with increasing deposition of reduced nitrogen. Our monitoring has validated regulatory decisions, based on predictive models, that emissions were not currently compromising the ecological health of the selected sites from an acidification perspective. Ageing enhances the toxicity of nanomaterials Assessing the risk from nanomaterials is challenging due to their reactivity and consequent high transformation potential. For metal based nanomaterials, it is thought that hazard is most likely driven through the toxicity of the metal ions released, although delivery time and site of action may differ compared with direct exposure to ions. The main concern is that the normal hazard assessment based on testing parent compounds in acute tests may be inadequate because nanomaterials are much transformed in the environment due to waste stream and environmental transformation reactions. We examined the effects of long term exposure to nanomaterials and how these are modified by ageing of the particles. In one experiment, we undertook toxicity tests in earthworms exposed to natural field soil dosed with silver ions as a control treatment or with pristine silver nanoparticles. Nanoparticle treatments were aged in that worms were introduced into the soil either immediately (non-aged) or 2, 7 and 12 months after amendment with nanoparticles. The non-aged nanomaterial treated soil was close to 30 times less toxic by mass than the silver ion control treatment. However, the nano-dosed soils became increasingly toxic with length of aging (Figure 1) and 12 month aged silver nanoparticles were as toxic (per mass silver) as soil dosed with silver ions1. Thus, short term tests of nanomaterials may significantly underestimate potential long-term environmental toxicity caused by nanoparticles. In other experiments, mixtures of Ag, ZnO and TiO2 nanomaterials were introduced into a large pilot scale waste water treatment plant to produce contaminated sludge, while two parallel control streams provided uncontaminated and metal ion (mass equivalent) contaminated sludge sources. The 3 sludges were mixed into a field soil to generate maximum allowable sludge derived soil metal concentrations, and aged outdoors prior to testing with earthworms. There was only a small effect on reproduction when earthworms were kept in sludge containing metal ions but exposure to aged nano-containing sludge with the same metal concentration nearly arrested earthworm reproduction. These studies show that a reliance on standard acute tests or "read across" from other exposure forms may compromise risk assessment of nanomaterials because such tests do not incorporate exposure relevant modification of parent material . In essence, our results suggest that current environmental releases of nanomaterials that would be assessed as safe could result in adverse environmental effects in the future because ageing enhanced the toxicity of the nanoparticles. Informing Policy Makers on Infectious Virus Detection in Rivers The EU Commission aims to review the existing Bathing Waters Directive (BWD; 2006/7/EC) by 2020. The inclusion of monitoring for human enteric viruses in the Directive might be considered at that time. For this reason, there is a desire to know what methods are currently available for the quantification of infectious human viruses in bathing waters. Since not all viruses detected in water bodies will be capable of infection, any such future guidelines may need to be able to distinguish between detection and infectivity to avoid over-estimation of the risks to human health. Moreover, accurate determination of risk will ensure that mitigating measures to lower the risk are proportionate and cost effective. The CEH-led, Defra-commissioned, report concluded that there are two main methods for detection and quantification of infectious viruses, cell-culture- and structural integrity-based methods. While cell culture provides a validated measure of infectious virus in a sample it is not suitable for scaling up to high-throughput as would be need for BWD implementation. New mechanisms for adapting to toxic stress The adaptation of invertebrates to metal exposure at long-term polluted field sites has been shown to depend on the activity (expression) of metallothionein proteins. Recent work by CEH (in association with Imperial College and Cardiff University), has recently established a complementary role of the small cysteine-rich non-ribosomal peptides phytochelatins in earthworm response to arsenic exposure. This metal chaperone expression response was found to be relevant for naive animals exposed in the laboratory and also for native animal collected from polluted (mine spoil) sites. The identification of increased phytochelatin metabolite expression in association with increased arsenic exposure established both a new biological paradigm of adaptation to toxic metal/metalloid stress and also a potential target for biomonitoring the extent of long-term bioavailable trace element exposure in field populations at potentially polluted sites. Modelling pharmaceutical concentrations in rivers at a European scale Freshwater Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) are proposed at an EU-wide scale but it is difficult to assess likely compliance or failure across such a broad spatial scale. In collaboration with Brunel and Radboud universities, CEH modelled the risk in rivers from cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs, the pharmaceutical estrogens E2, EE2, and the painkiller diclofenac at a European spatial scale. This involved incorporating multiple national datasets (drug consumption, excretion, water use, sewage removal rates) into the CEH-developed GWAVA model, a geographic based water resources model. Our evaluation for the cytotoxic drugs showed no risks for aquatic wildlife in European rivers. EE2 was the drug most likely to fail a suggested European EQS (0.035 ng/L), with 12% by length of Europe's rivers exceeding this proposed EQS. This failure rate was 25% in English rivers. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Environment,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | participation in Defra Expertt Committees |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Participation of CEH staff in Defra expert committees on (I) pesticides and (ii) hazardous substances, leading to the formulation of advice to ministers on implementation or otherwise of controls and mitigation on use of chemicals and pesticides |
| Description | CEH sign MoU with the Agriculture Committee of Hunan Province |
| Organisation | Hunan Government |
| Department | Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Hunan Province |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | The parties will collaborate on: • Identification of pollution sources • Experimental approaches to evaluate pollution remediation options |
| Collaborator Contribution | The parties will collaborate on: • Identification of pollution sources • Experimental approaches to evaluate pollution remediation options |
| Impact | non yet |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Scottish Raptor Health Study |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | Royal School of Veterinary Studies |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Scottish Raptor Health Study is a Scottish surveillance scheme assessing the health of Scottish raptors and using them as indicators of ecosystem health http://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/raptor-health-scotland. The project performs post mortem examinations on all Scottish raptor birds submitted to look at factors contributing to their death and examines live raptor chicks for health assessment. Samples originating from these two sources undergo bacteriology, parasitology, virology and toxicology testing. The Scottish Raptor Health Study has joined the WILDCOMS network and, by through dong so, has enhanced sample sharing with other WILDCOMS partners, namely the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland run by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), a Division of the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate. Submission of carcasses from Scotland are directed to the Scottish Raptor Health study and samples are then shared between the study and the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Scottish Raptor Health Study has joined the WILDCOMS network and, by through dong so, has enhanced sample sharing with other WILDCOMS partners, namely the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland run by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), a Division of the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate. Submission of carcasses from Scotland are directed to the Scottish Raptor Health study and samples are then shared between the study and the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland |
| Impact | just started. Ouputs and outcomes still to be delivered |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Plastics in the environment workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A workshop between three research organisations to look at the issue of plastics and micro plastics in the environment and identifying research questions and priorities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |