Clean water and healthy ecosystems are central to sustainable human and animal populations. Yet, in the last decade, it has been discovered that most of our major rivers, lakes and seas are now contaminated by a wide variety of pharmaceutical pollutants (e.g. medications like antidepressants and painkillers). Most of these pollutants reach the environment via our wastewater. Of particular concern is the impact that these drugs may have on wildlife. This is because pharmaceuticals are specifically designed to have biological effects at low concentrations, and they target receptors that are also found in other animals. Indeed, pharmaceutical pollutants have now been detected in the tissues of aquatic wildlife (from insects to whales), and have been shown to change animal physiology and behaviour. However, we still know very little about how these contaminants affect animals, and nearly nothing about how these effects scale up to impact animal populations and communities. It is precisely this lack of understanding about the broader environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals that severly hampers our ability take informed action regarding pharmaceutical emissions.

My MSCA funded project ‘AquaDrugs’ will address this critical knowledge gap by harnessing new developments in underwater animal tracking (i.e. acoustic telemetery), computer automation, and targeted exposure devices (see below). Specifically, the project involves a series of integrated experiments that will connect the impacts of pharmaceutical contaminants across biological scales, from individuals, to animal groups, to multi-species communities. In the laboratory, I will determine how pharmaceuticals, both in isolation and in mixtures, impact several ecologically important behaviours that are directly linked to health, reproduction and survival in animals. Using natural field experiments, I will assess how pharmaceutical-induced behavioural changes at the individual and group levels impact multi-species interactions and aquatic communities. By connecting findings in the laboratory with observations in nature, AquaDrugs will provide new insights into the predictive power of laboratory-based behavioural studies for making contaminant risk decisions in natural systems.

“AquaDrugs represents a signficant step toward improved risk analysis of pharmaceuticals in the environment, and will give legislators and environmental practitioners new knowledge and tools for making informed decisions regarding chemicals regulation.”