Systematic use of contaminant data from apex predators and their prey in chemicals management.
Systematic use of contaminant data
The aim of LIFE APEX is to improve systematic use, by regulators, of chemical monitoring data from apex predators and prey (‘AP&P’) for better chemicals management, thereby reducing exposure to harmful substances and protecting human health and the environment.
Chemical monitoring data from apex predators (e.g. raptors, otters, seals) are of particular value. Their position at the tops of food webs means they act as sentinels to reveal harmful (persistent, bio-accumulative, toxic – PBT) substances, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. When combined with data from selected prey (e.g. fish), apex predator data can deliver useful quantitative information on bioaccumulation.
LIFE APEX involves making better and more cost-effective use of chemical monitoring data from to the large, valuable but underused resource of AP&P samples in Europe’s Environmental Specimen Banks (ESBs), Natural History Museums (NHM) and other collections. LIFE APEX responds to explicit needs of regulators for specific regulatory applications in relation to REACH and the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR).
LIFE APEX is financed for 4 years under the 2017 LIFE Environment and Resource Efficiency project. Starting date 1 September 2018.
In themedia
News about the search for buzzards for the use in the LIFE APEX project, published in the Dutch newspaper 'Trouw'.
Read the entire article in Dutch here.
Participantsin LIFE APEX
Coordinating beneficiary:
- Environmental Institute, Kos, Slovakia.
Associated beneficiaries:
- Natural Environment Research Council, U.K.
- Umweltbundesamt / German Environment Agency and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME (Fraunhofer IME), Germany
- Naturalis Biodiversity Center, The Netherlands
- Università degli Studi di Firenze - Dipartimento di Chimica “Ugo Schiff”, Italy
- National and Κapodistrian University of Athens (Ethniko Kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon), Greece
Postersof the project
Postersof the project
Postersof the project
