Title: Assessing exposure risks of emerging contaminants in
the environment to wild birds
Supervisors: Kathryn Arnold (Environment Dept, University of
York), Richard Shore (CEH, Lancaster), Gloria Pereira (CEH, Lancaster)
Background
Birds are good indicators of ecosystem health because they
live in a range of habitats and generally occupy a high trophic level. Whilst
contaminants are implicated in biodiversity declines, exposure risk is
difficult to predict both in space and time especially for ‘emerging’
contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in the environment.
Objectives
This studentship will develop novel tools and approaches for
assessing exposure of wild birds to pharmaceuticals in the environment.
Specifically, the student will:
1) Using samples gathered by the Predatory Bird Monitoring
Scheme (http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/ - run
by CEH), through WILDCOMS (http://www.wildcoms.org.uk/
- led by CEH) and potentially by the student in the field, validate assays for
pharmaceuticals in the tissues of top predators and prey species from sites
across the UK;
2) Identify species and food chains most at risk to
pharmaceutical exposure;
3) Map pharmaceuticals in the environment across different
spatial and temporal scales;
4) Incorporate spatial data on pharmaceutical and target
species’ distributions with diet and pharmaceutical toxicity data to help plan
a monitoring and surveillance network for emerging contaminants affecting wildlife.
The deadline for receipt of applications is Monday 20
January 2014.
Eligibility: The studentships are available to UK and EU
students who meet the UK residency requirements. Students from EU countries who
do not meet the residency requirements may still be eligible for a fees-only
award.
For more information and application details see website:
For informal enquiries email: Kathryn.Arnold@york.ac.uk