Project description
A deeper understanding of persistent organic pollutants and their effects on wildlife
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are poisonous chemical substances that affect human health and ecosystems around the world. They can stay in the environment for a long time, accumulating and passing from one species to another through the food chain. With a focus on a European migratory bird species, the Alpine swift (Tachymarptis melba), the EU-funded POPHEALTH project aims to elucidate how wintering and breeding areas influence the exposure to POPs in the wild. Findings will help validate which tissues best describe exposure to POPs in birds, in addition to shedding light on how exposure to POPs affects health and fitness.
Objective
Human activities are imposing major environmental alterations in natural populations and ecosystems. One of these alterations is pollution, which is the introduction in natural environments of contaminants that can alter the health, reproduction and survival of free living organisms. Consequently, there is increasing concerns about the sources of exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and about their consequences on human health and on natural populations and ecosystems. POPs are known to persist in the environment and to bioaccumulate through the lifetime of organisms as well as to increase in concentration with each successive step in the food chain (biomagnification), therefore top predators as birds are used as bioindicators. Moreover, migratory animals as birds don’t have borders, and hence, one growing issue is that European breeding species may also become exposed to POPs when visiting non-European ecosystems, such as during migration to Africa where many POPs banned in the EU are still used there as pesticides. POPs can be measured in different tissues (e.g. feathers, preen oil, and blood), although it is less clear to which extent these measure. For instance, blood samples are expected to reflect rather recent exposure to POPs. Currently, no study has addressed how POPs accumulate in different tissues using repeated measures from the same individuals, and as such explore what types of samples are best describing POPs bioaccumulation. Therefore, by applying in a European migratory bird species (the Alpine swift, Tachymarptis melba) new tracking technologies and state-of-the-art physiological and biomolecular tools, the overarching aim of POPHEALTH is to improve our understanding of how wintering and breeding areas influence the exposure to POPs in the wild, to provide novel insights on the health and fitness consequences of exposure to POPs in a long-term perspective, and to validate which tissue best describe exposure to POPs in birds.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology ornithology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.