Regulating emerging pharmaceutical contaminants under global climate change: the need for a multistressor, physiological approach

This project aims to investigate the problem of emerging pharmaceutical contaminants amidst climate change. Pharmaceuticals are an emerging global threat to aquatic ecosystems globally as they are highly persistent once they enter the environment. There is growing evidence that they cause stress to a range of aquatic taxa and can accumulate up aquatic food chains. A key challenge remains with regulating these contaminants at the present time, in that animals will not experience increasing pollutant levels in isolation, but alongside global climate stressors, such as warming and hypoxia. Exposure to such stressors impacts metabolic performance in aquatic invertebrates which, in turn, is hypothesised to have a role in enhancing pharmaceutical accumulation and toxicity. Therefore, this project adopts a novel, multistressor, physiological approach to reveal the true threat of emerging pharmaceutical contaminants amidst climate change (rising temperatures and hypoxia) (Fig. 1). The project will involve characterising environmental levels of temperature, oxygen and pharmaceuticals, both from existing national datasets hosted by the Environment Agency, and experimentally in the field. We will assess the biological consequences of pharmaceutical-climate change combinations in ecologically important invertebrate species in the laboratory, combining modern -omics techniques with whole organism physiology. Physiological data will be overlaid with environmental data to predict sensitivity to future change. The approach adopted here will be essential to identify the subtle, mechanistic interactions between pollutants and climate drivers, and will provide important information to inform chemical regulation to prevent impacts on individuals, populations and, ultimately, ecosystems.

Therefore, this PhD project will apply a novel, multistressor physiological approach to assess the risk posed by emerging pharmaceutical contaminants amidst climate change in aquatic invertebrates. This project will focus upon a class of emerging pharmaceutical contaminants called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which are used widely within medicine, e.g. ibuprofen, diclofenac. These drugs are of growing concern to many regulatory bodies around the world and are currently being considered for more stringent regulation. However, in order to be effectively regulated, the modifying effects of climate drivers must be considered. This PhD will therefore address the following objectives:

You will benefit from joining a multidisciplinary team of environmental chemists and ecophysiologists, as well as input from regulatory bodies (EA). You will receive training on: (1) Analysis of big data - national chemical data and risk assessment; (2) Analytical chemistry - modelling and monitoring of pharmaceuticals in the environment; (3) Ecophysiological multistressor experimentation – animal physiological responses to stressor combinations and molecular techniques such as transcriptomics. You will also have the opportunity to participate in University of Plymouth’s research training courses and be mentored by the supervisory team on data analysis, critical thinking, scientific writing, and experimental design. Input from the Environment Agency will ensure the candidate gains experience working at the interface between research and regulatory bodies.