Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/L009676/1
COMPREHENSIVE DETERMINATION OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER (DOM) AT THE MOLECULAR LEVEL TO UNDERPIN ENHANCED RIVER WATER QUALITY ASSESSMENTS
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor RP Evershed, University of Bristol, Chemistry
- Grant held at:
- University of Bristol, Chemistry
- Science Area:
- Freshwater
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Freshwater
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Pollution and Waste
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Increasing concentrations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in freshwaters is recognised worldwide, the impacts being linked to ecosystem health (e.g. degradation of ecological status in inland waters), human health (e.g. carcinogen formation in the water treatment process), and increased transport of DOM to coastal waters. All the latter are cause for concern and are likely to result in substantial costs for the water industry and environmental management agencies without appropriate controls. International policy surrounding DOM is developing, for example, in Europe, where control of nutrient flux to waters (including the DOM component) is required to support the maintenance or restoration of waters to Good Ecological Status under the EU Water Framework Directive; similar pressures are exerted through other international agreements. The major challenge to assessing the true impacts of DOM is the lack of knowledge of its chemical composition, origins, behaviour and role in ecosystems. DOM is currently only considered in water chemistry studies as a bulk concentration, which is inadequate in view of the highly chemically complex nature of DOM and the fact that differences in DOM chemistry must impact water quality in different ways. Current approaches to DOM chemistry at the molecular level focus on a relatively restricted range of priority pollutants, which is at odds with the need to develop more holistic approaches to human and climate induced environmental change. This NERC Industrial CASE studentship with the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera) and Universities of Bristol and Reading builds on recognition of a need to provide increasingly robust and comprehensive means of assessing water quality. Particularly important are analytical approaches that can provide new insights into the compositions DOM to address the effectiveness of different management schemes, especially those based on better defining catchment sources and processes influencing DOM chemistry. This collaboration will provide the student with a unique opportunity to undertake an extremely exciting PhD studentship that is likely to change the way DOM is considered in water quality assessments in the future. The overarching aim is for the student to develop the use of a state-of-the-art Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry (FTICRMS) to determine the composition of DOM at the molecular level and use this new approach to examine the behaviour and significance of DOM compounds in freshwater ecosystems. The three collaborators are brought together for the first time in this project to provide infrastructure resources and expertise vital to the project, including: (i) extensive experience in the biomolecular analysis of complex environmental matrices from natural and anthropogenically impacted ecosystems, and state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for sample preparation and mass spectrometric analysis of DOM (Evershed, Bristol); (ii) a world class environment for the development of a range of analytical platforms, including FTICRMS, in the field of environmental metabolomics, including applications in the area of environmental monitoring and knowledge of the data analysis procotols for computerised processing of complex FTICRMS data (Charlton, Fera), and (iii) expertise in the catchment scale understanding of DOM behaviour in freshwater systems to coastal waters, and access to training and support in specific laboratory and field techniques deployed in the Defra Demonstration Test Catchments and NERC DOM large grant programme research platforms (Johnes, Reading). The studentship outcomes will have impact in the international DOM research community, with the techniques developed having direct benefits to Fera and our Project Partner Defra, and thence the water industry and environmental management agencies by providing a new high resolution approach to DOM characterisation and source identification in complex landscapes
- NERC Reference:
- NE/L009676/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Completion
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Industrial CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £83,515
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|
| £16,226 | £56,292 | £11,000 |
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