Chemical Mixtures Project: Classic and temporal mixture synergisms in terrestrial ecosystems: Prevalence, mechanisms and impacts
Project Lead: Dr David Spurgeon
Grant Awarded: £2.4M
Background
Current additive mixture toxicity predictions models cannot predict the chemical combinations for which synergism or antagonism occur. Regulatory reviews have, therefore, identified understanding “the causes and consequences of synergism” as a critical research need. This is certainly true for terrestrial agroecosystems, where such effects have rarely been studied, despite the fact that (under conventional management) these environments are frequently exposed to complex mixtures of agrochemicals and other pollutants. In this project, we will outline and populate a mechanistically founded predictive framework that can be used to identify synergistic mixtures and understand their causes and impacts. Our approach combines ecotoxicological studies in terrestrial species, with toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic modelling, adverse outcome pathway (AOP) assessment, dynamic energy budget theory and ecosystem level assessment to investigate mixture effects from laboratory to field. Our project is structured under 5 objective and work packages, linking across different methods, approaches and outputs (Figure 3).
Objectives
- Identify synergism and temporal interactions in agroecosystem relevant chemical mixtures.
- Identify the toxicokinetic and toxicodynamic traits and responses underlying synergism
- Use physiological models (GUTS and DEBtox) to link toxicokinetic, toxicodynamic and energetic traits to phenotypic responses in mixture exposures.
- Undertake mesocosm and field studies to quantify how synergistic mixtures affect population, community structure and ecosystem process in complex communities.
- Work with stakeholders to produce a ‘white paper’ setting out a roadmap for mixtures risk assessment.
Fig.3 The rationale, objectives and outputs of each work package. Arrows indicate how the next work package builds upon the prior
Research Team
- David Spurgeon - CEH
- Maria Dos Santos Periera - CEH
- Ben Woodcock - CEH
- Claus Svendsen - CEH
- Elma Lahive - CEH
- Peter Kille - Cardiff University
- Andy Weightman - Cardiff University
- Stephen Short - Cardiff University
- Alistair Boxall - University of York
- Roman Ashauer - University of York
- Sylvain Bart - University of York
- Jack Bundy - Imperial College London
- Liz Want - Imperial College London
- Virag Sagi-Kiss - Imperial College London