Impact: Mussels are particularly susceptible to chemical contamination of the aquatic environment.
Sussex researchers are involved in a new Anglo-French project that investigates the effect of water pollution on animals.
The joint project, which looks at how a specific group of pollutants impacts on fish and aquatic invertebrates (such as mussels, clams and aquatic snails), has received over 2 million euros of European funding.
Dr Jeanette Rotchell, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, leads the UK involvement, which includes the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth as well as researchers from Sussex.
Jeanette and her colleague Dr Liz Hill each lead one of the three research areas:
There are also six French partner institutions and companies, with the Université du Havre as the overall project leader.
External partners include the UK Environment Agency and ONEMA (Office National de l'Eau at des Milieux Aquatiques), who are responsible for developing legislation on environmental contamination.
Jeanette and Liz have now received joint funding from the European Union under all four its so-called 'INTERREG' programmes, providing a continuous large-scale research programme spanning more than a decade.
The new project, which will run for five years, is the most ambitious in both scale and scope.
Jeanette said: "This is a great opportunity to directly influence emerging national and European environmental legislation."
Organisations such as the Environment Agency could use the findings, for example, to set permitted pollution levels for discharge from sewage-treatment works.