Uncovering the effects of pharmaceuticals in the wild, beyond individuals to animal communities

The increasing production and release of pharmaceutical pollutants into waterways is now a leading threat to aquatic wildlife and ecosystems around the world.

Despite this, knowledge on the hazards these contaminants cause in complex natural ecosystems is still extremely poor and thus considered an urgent research priority.

AquaDrugs will harness new developments in underwater animal tracking and computer automation to identify how pharmaceutical waste in the environment can induce behavioural changes in animals that lead to high-order ecological effects.

Through a series of well-integrated experiments, and using fish as a model system, AquaDrugs will trace the impact of pharmaceuticals across biological scales to address four novel and ambitious objectives: (1) test how environmentally relevant concentrations of two globally pervasive pharmaceuticals (clobazam an tramadol), both in isolation and in a mixture, influence ecologically important wildlife behaviours and variability; (2) identify whether, and how, such changes impact animal collectives; (3) determine how pharmaceutical-induced behavioural changes at the individual and group levels scale up to shape aquatic communities; and (4) uncover how exposure shapes the ecological interactions of multiple species.

The project will deliver urgently needed data for chemicals regulation leading to improved policies that safeguard Europes aquatic ecosystems and wildlife from pharmaceutical impacts.

The interdisciplinary approaches and theory in AquaDrugsfrom integrative ecology, ecotoxicology, and analytical chemistryalso promises to yield pioneering results and experimental innovations that will advance these scientific fields and boost the expertise and academic career of the research fellow, Dr Marcus Michelangeli.

Importantly, the research in AquaDrugs directly addresses key research priorities in Europe including the European Green Deal and the EUs Mission for Healthy Oceans, Seas, and Inland Waters.