Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-29

Bioturbation effects on distribution, fluxes, bioavailability and toxicity of uranium in freshwater ecosystems.

Objective

The aim of this project is to understand and quantify the effect of the bio-turbating activity of macro-invertebrates on transfers and bioavailability of uranium in freshwater ecosystems. Uranium is a toxic non-essential metal that can be concentrated at high levels in sediments. One of the major processes that can enhance the transfer of uranium between the sediments and the overlying water is the activity of benthic macrofauna. Our project aims at improving knowledge and understanding about uranium fate and effects in freshwater ecosystems and the ecotoxicological consequences of a chronic exposure situation.

Our work will deal with several connected aspects as follows:
(1) the impact of the benthic macrofauna on sediment biogeochemistry and thus on uranium distribution and fate in the sediment;
(2) the impact of the benthic macrofauna on uranium transfers from the sediment to the overlying water and from the overlying water to the sediment;
(3) the bioavailability and the toxicity of uranium (from both sediment and overlying water sources) for benthic organisms;
(4) the long-term effect of uranium on the composition of natural benthic communities and on their bioturbation activities.

The research project is based on a multi- and inter-disciplinary laboratory -based approach using several methods and techniques presently available at the host institution (Laboratory of Radioecology and Ecotoxicology (LRE/IRSN/DEI/SECRE/LRE, Centre de Cadarache, Saint Paul Lez Durance cedex, France). These original techniques are: fluorescent tracers to study the bioturbation activity; DET gel probes, O2, Eh and pH microelectrodes, planar 2D oxygen optodes, to monitor the biogeochemistry of the sediment; DET gel probes ICP-AES and isotopic ratio measurements to quantify uranium concentrations in sediment, overlying water and organisms; histological analysis, uranium micro-localisation (TEM) in cells, estimation of genotoxicity and of oxidative stress to investigate uranium toxicity.

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.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

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.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-11
See other projects for this call

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.

ERG - Marie Curie actions-European Re-integration Grants

Coordinator

INSTITUTE FOR RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION AND NUCLEAR SAFETY
EU contribution
No data
Total cost

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.

No data
My booklet 0 0