H2020Индивидуална стипендия2016–2018

MicroERA · Ecological Sensitivity Distribution (ESD): integrating molecular-based structural and functional microbial community responses in a new tool for environmental risk assessment of chemicals

„Хоризонт 2020“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2016-10-01 → 2018-09-30
Финансиране от ЕС: 159 461 €
Участници: 1
Схема: MSCA-IF-EF-ST

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Микробните общности във водите се анализират чрез молекулярни методи, за да се види как химикали от индустрията и земеделието променят техния състав и функции. Това помага за създаването на по-точни инструменти за оценка на екологичния риск и защита на водната среда.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Ecological Sensitivity Distribution (ESD): integrating molecular-based structural and functional microbial community responses in a new tool for environmental risk assessment of chemicals

Aquatic ecosystems shelter microbial communities, a key compartment implied in many ecosystem functions such as biogeochemical cycles or pollutants degradation and crucial for aquatic ecosystems proper functioning. However, these communities are currently exposed to agricultural and industrial chemicals which may alter their structure (abundance, composition) and their functional activity. To protect environmental communities from chemicals, the European community applies many risk assessment methods of various levels of environmental relevance which are mainly based on structural responses. Moreover, most of those methods suffer from several drawbacks such as their incompatibility to consider responses at the community level and especially the microbial ones. Thus, this project aimed to propose a new generation of risk assessment tool (ESD: Ecological Sensitivity Distribution) by revisiting the Species Sensitivity Distribution (SSD) concept for microbial communities and by considering the protection of functions. The SSD approach (used in the context of several directives) aims to derive thresholds that protect environmental communities to chemical-induced effects from the cumulative distribution of many species sensitivity data obtained from monospecific bioassays under laboratory conditions. One of the interests of the project was to consider several levels of responses, by combining functional measures on different levels of biological complexity, namely molecular (=transcriptomics, metabolomics) and apical/classical endpoints (e.g. growth, photosynthesis) in order to assess the added-value of the omics technologies in ecological risk assessment (ERA). When aiming to integrating data on different levels in an ESD comparable effect thresholds are needed. The microERA project led to the development of a turnkey tool called DRomics (Dose-Response for omics, available as an R package and an online interface http://lbbe-shiny.univ-lyon1.fr/DRomics-shiny/). This tool manages molecular responses obtained in a dose-response framework and allows in fine integrating molecular responses (e.g. genes, metabolites) in ERA. The results highlighted that omics responses were more sensitive than classical endpoints and consequently, genes and metabolites involved in a function showed higher sensitivity than the direct measurement of the functions (e.g. energy metabolism pathway vs. photosynthesis). In conclusion, the use of cumulative sensitivity distributions of omics data could reinforce risk assessment procedures and enable the integration of functions and community studies in ERA.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Aquatic ecosystems are regularly threatened by chemical mixtures. Among risk assessment methods, the Species Sensitivity Distributions (SSD) approach is frequently applied. SSDs are built on the sensitivity of species, obtained from monospecies bioassays, and aim to derive concentrations expected to protect the structure of field communities to chemicals. However, this method overlook species interactions and the protection of ecosystem functions. Microbial communities constitute a key compartment of aquatic ecosystems since they support bio-geochemical processes that are crucial for their proper functioning. Thus, their protection to chemical-induced hazards is a crucial challenge for a sustainable management of ecosystems. Until now, these communities were weakly focused by the regulatory risk assessment guidances. The main aim of this study is to further develop the SSD approach to a new risk assessment tool, the Ecological Sensitivity Distribution (ESD), (1) adapted to microbial communities, (2) protective for structure and functions and (3) integrating species interactions. Integrating community functions in risk assessment approaches is a real need for scientific, regulator and industrial sectors since the protection of ecosystem services (whose proxies are functions) is at the very heart of the environmental policies of European member states (REACH regulation, Water Framework Directive). This tool will be based on the sensitivity of many endpoints related to structure and function including molecular endpoints measured at the microbial community level in “cosms”. Hence, another innovative aspect of this project is the inclusion of OMICs-technologies to environmental risk assessment, through both targeted approaches (focus on genes coding for specific functions) and untargeted ones (metabolomics). The reliability of the ESD-approach will finally be assessed at a large scale in key European aquatic ecosystems with the support of the European Biofilm Network.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM FUR UMWELTFORSCHUNG GMBH - UFZ · LeipzigКоординаторГермания