Pollution

Understanding environmental contamination and developing sustainable solutions

Overview

A myriad and ever-increasing range of anthropogenic contaminants are now present in our environment. We seek to assess the fate, behaviour, and impacts of pollutants (from source to-sink), and work on a wide range of priorities including emerging contaminants, marine plastics, pharmaceuticals, and heavy metals. 

Our research seeks to not only quantify the presence of pollution, but to understand its risks to and impacts on biodiversity, working at the molecular, individual and population level. Our work sits firmly within the wider global “One Health” agenda, which recognises that the health and wellbeing of humans, biota, and the environment are all closely interconnected and interdependent. As such, holistic transdisciplinary solutions are needed. 

We continuously work to promote globally sustainable solutions to complex pollution related problems, engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders and collaborators to apply fundamental and world leading research to real world challenges. Our research aims to inform and affect environmental protection policy at the international scale. 

ERI also leads UHI’s WaterHub knowledge exchange group which addresses contemporary challenges in drinking water provision, wastewater treatment and resource management in rural and sparsely populated regions of Scotland, and in similar regions elsewhere in Europe and around the world.

“Connecting human, biota, and environmental health through cutting-edge pollution research”
E_WEB_03.png
E_WEB_06.png
E_WEB_07.png
E_WEB_08.png
E_WEB_11.png
E_WEB_12.png
E_WEB_13.png

Current Priorities

  • Novel and ‘circular’ wastewater treatment solutions, the repurposing of waste for use in water treatment, developing engineered adsorption technology, low-cost and sustainable approaches (including constructed wetlands), resource (i.e., nutrient) recapture, recovery, and reuse.

  • Novel ‘biomonitoring’ techniques (i.e., to assess emerging risks, such as from antimicrobial resistance); eDNA metabarcoding to quantify community level impacts of pollutants; remote sensing and citizen science approaches to support largescale monitoring and assessment. Development of new ecotoxicity tools involving model organisms and developing testing systems at the micro-, meso- and macrocosm scale; facilitating assessment at various trophic levels and toxicity endpoints.

  • Working closely with sectors such as agriculture, forestry, conservation, and game management to minimise the impacts of pollution on the environment through activities such as deforestation or afforestation, windfarm construction, hunting and the use of agrochemicals.

  • Developing cross-sector partnerships to seek to prevent priority pollutants entering the environment through changes in practice (i.e., in pharmaceutical prescribing), and through promoting greater recovery, recycling and repurposing (i.e., of waste plastics).

image-asset.jpg
image-asset.jpg
IMG_9545.jpg
5DC_8069 copy.jpg
5DC_8105 copy.jpg
5D3A1_0998.jpg

Current Projects

Past Projects

Theme Members