MODELKEY – Models for Assessing and Forecasting the Impact of Environmental Key Pollutants on Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ

2005-2010

British Isles Central Europe Eastern Europe Scandinavia Southern Europe Western Europe

MODELKEY comprises a multidisciplinary approach aiming at developing interlinked and verified predictive modelling tools as well as state-of-the-art effect-assessment and analytical methods generally applicable to European freshwater and marine ecosystems

Scientists

Occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment and Risks to ecosystems

1) To assess, forecast, and mitigate the risks of traditional and recently evolving pollutants on fresh water and marine ecosystems and their biodiversity at a river basin and adjacent marine environment scale,
2) To provide early warning strategies on the basis of sub-lethal effects in vitro and in vivo,
3) To provide a better understanding of cause-effect-relationships between changes in biodiversity and the ecological status, as addressed by the Water Framework Directive, and the impact of environmental pollution as causative factor,
4) To provide methods for state-of-the-art risk assessment and decision support systems for the selection of the most efficient management options to prevent effects on biodiversity and to priorities contamination sources and contaminated sites,
5) To strengthen the scientific knowledge on an European level in the field of impact assessment of environmental pollution on aquatic eco-systems and their biodiversity by extensive training activities and knowledge dissemination to stakeholders and the scientific community.

• MODELKEY and the Waterframework Directive
• A Decision Support System for River Basin Management Plans
• MODELKEY Models for assessing and forecasting the impact of environmental key pollutants on freshwater and marine ecosystems and biodiversity
• Effect-Directed Analysis of Key Toxicants in European River Basins A Review
• MODELKEY: New evidences on the impact of environmental key pollutants on aquatic ecosystems
• Bridging levels of pharmaceuticals in river water with biological community structure in the llobregat river basin (northeast spain)