Improvement of SQGs through the incorporation of chronic exposure-effect model

Objective

Sediments are extremely important to the food web and serve as the ultimate repository and source of most of the contaminants, including metals. For this reason, it is appropriate that regulatory attention addresses the ecological risks that these sediment contaminants might pose. So much so that, the need to understand the impacts of contaminated sediments on aquatic environmental quality is implicit in the text of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), and in the Directive on Environmental Quality Standards in the field of water policy, different metals have been included in the group of substance identified as priority on account of the substantial risk they pose to or via the aquatic environment. Currently, the first tool to assess metal sediment quality is the use of Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs). The SQGs represent an important tool for flagging potentially toxic metal levels in sediments, indicating which sediments may be or no concern and those which merit a closer-look. However, the level of protection offered by current SQGs is far to be totally efficacy. Significantly more research is required into the chronic and sub-lethal effects of dissolved metals and the metal exposures from dietary sources (e.g. food and sediment ingestion). The purpose of this project is to develop an environmental exposure-effect model to predict copper chronic effects in order to improve the effectiveness of the SQGs. This project addresses directly the Community policy established by Water Framework Directive 2000/60/ec and enhances furthermore the development of ecotoxicological tools to prevent the pollution.

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.

• social sciences political sciences political policies public policies
• natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution

Keywords

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

• Ecotoxicology
• Environmental monitoring
• Environmental risk assessment
• Exposure assessment
• Modelling (Environmental risks)
• Pollution prevention

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

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.

• FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008 - Marie Curie Action: "International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

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

FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008
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.

MC-IOF - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF)

Coordinator