Human activities cause pollution, habitat destruction, and overuse of natural resources, harming ecosystems. These ecosystems provide essential services like clean air, fresh water, fertile soil, and a home for wildlife. Protecting and restoring them is vital.
Our role
We study how pollutants, nutrients, and pathogens move through the environment and affect ecosystems. By using monitoring, modelling and process studies, we track their impacts and inform safe and sustainable solutions for the future. Our research ranges from understanding threats to assessing the consequences for ecosystems and human health.
Our goals
- Develop whole-system approaches to help us understand how different environments respond to the combined pressures of pollution, climate change, and land use changes.
- Generate insights and inform interventions to reduce the impact of pollution on ecosystems and human health.
- Develop integrated environmental strategies that consider the multiple impacts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrient cycles.
- Scrutinise new technologies, including those used to reach net zero, ensuring they are sustainable and fair for everyone globally.
- Design new approaches to restore or repurpose damaged and polluted landscapes so they are resilient for the future.
The impact we will have
We investigate how pollutants, nutrients, and pathogens move through the environment and affect ecosystems. Our research underpins sustainable solutions for the future, strengthening food and water security, combatting invasive species and disease, and safeguarding nature and people.
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