PhD Research Project: Ecological Impacts of Chemicals in a Changing World

Background: Man-made chemicals greatly enhance human well-being, but can have negative effects on the environment, including on nature’s benefits to people (i.e. ecosystem services). Environmental risk assessments are required for new chemical substances before they can be marketed. They bring together information on the use patterns, environmental fate and transport, and ecotoxicity of chemicals in order to determine whether the risks are acceptable or not.

The World is changing rapidly and there is increasing recognition that changes in climate, demographics, and technology mean that the future environmental impact of chemicals could be very different from today. There is an urgent need to develop approaches for forecasting the risks of chemicals in the future so that we can ensure that they continue to be used in a sustainable way. This project will address this need by focusing on the use of pesticides in agriculture.

Agricultural landscapes depend on, and provide, a number of ecosystem services. Managing these landscapes to meet increasing food demands whilst ensuring the sustainable provision of key ecosystem services against a backdrop of changing climatic, demographic and technological conditions, is a key research challenge. The proposed project begins to address this challenge within the context of European pesticide regulation and is highly relevant to UK chemical risk assessment post-Brexit.

Objectives: To develop and evaluate a framework for predicting chemical risks to ecosystem service delivery in the 2050s and 2080s. Agricultural pesticides are used as the case study chemicals (due to data availability) and the focus is on freshwater ecosystems. The specific objectives are:
1. Use available databases and modeling tools to develop environmental scenarios for water bodies in UK arable landscapes, capturing spatial variation in the potential to deliver ecosystem services.
2. Use predictions (e.g. of climate) to develop future UK environmental scenarios that capture potential changes in weather; hydrology; cropping patterns; pest/disease pressures; pesticide use, fate, and exposure; ecological communities and ecosystem service delivery.
3. Explore the interactions between temperature and pesticide exposure on key ecosystem service providers.
4. Develop recommendations on how to forecast chemical risk in the future.

Approach: mapping, modeling, and monitoring data/approaches will be used to develop environmental scenarios for current and future UK climates. Key knowledge gaps in the interactions between predicted climate change and pesticide effects on ecosystem service providers will be addressed experimentally. This post would suit a motivated student interested in environmental management and climate change, with an enthusiasm for a mix of laboratory and computer-based work.

Novelty: First attempt to: (1) understand and predict large-scale spatial variation in potential impacts of pesticide use on ecosystem service delivery; (2) assess risks of pesticides to ecosystem service delivery in the future.

Timeliness: This research is directly relevant to current EU legislation (i.e. Biodiversity Directive, Sustainable Pesticide Use Directive) and the ongoing work of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on assessing the environment risks of pesticides within an ecosystem-serviced framework. It will also be relevant to other environmental risk assessment frameworks for chemicals (e.g. REACH). The research is particularly timely given the vote on June 23 to leave the EU. The research findings will be highly relevant to future discussions regarding UK chemical risk assessment post-Brexit.

References
• Holt, AR; Alix, A; Thompson, A & Maltby, L (2016) Food production, ecosystem services and biodiversity: We can’t have it all everywhere. Science of the Total Environment. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.139
• Keller, V.D.J., Lloyd, P., Terry, J.A., Williams, R.J. (2015). Impact of climate change and population growth on a risk assessment for endocrine disruption in fish due to steroid estrogens in England and Wales. Environmental Pollution 197, 262-268.
• Balbus, JM, Boxall, ABA, Fenske, RA, McKone, TE, Zeise, L. (2013) Implications of global climate change for the assessment and management of human health risks of chemicals in the natural environment. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 32 (1): 62-78.
• Maltby, L (2013) Ecosystem services and the protection, restoration and management of ecosystems exposed to chemical stressors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 32: 974-983
 

Funding Notes

Fully funded for a minimum of 3.5 years, studentships cover: (i) a tax-free stipend at the standard Research Council rate (at least £14,296 per annum for 2017-2018), (ii) research costs, and (iii) tuition fees at the UK/EU rate. Studentship(s) are available to UK and EU students who meet the UK residency requirements. Students from EU countries who do not meet residency requirements may still be eligible for a fees-only award.

References

This Ph.D. project is part of the NERC funded Doctoral Training Partnership “ACCE” (Adapting to the Challenges of a Changing Environment). This is a partnership between the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, York and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Selection process: Shortlisting will take place as soon as possible after the closing date and successful applicants will be notified promptly. Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview to take place at the University of Sheffield the w/c 13th February 2017.