Contaminants research collaboration with China

We've highlighted in recent blog posts the importance of international collaboration in scientific research and some of the steps taken by CEH to develop new relationships with researchers abroad. The recent Memorandum of Understanding signed between environmental researchers in China and the UK [news story] resulted in a visit to China between 14-18 April of two groups of researchers from CEH and the James Hutton Institute. We've already heard from the team of lake ecologists about the links they forged on the trip. Now, in this new post by Professor Ed Tipping of CEH, he tells us about the visit of a group of contaminants researchers:

I was one of a group of scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster University and the James Hutton Institute who took part in a five-day visit to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences in Beijing to discuss collaborative research on environmental contamination by heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants. The other members of the group were Dr Stephen Lofts (CEH), Dr Andrew Sweetman (CEH and Lancaster University) and Dr Zulin Zhang (JHI) and we met Professor Yonglong Lu and his team of Associate Researchers, post-doctoral researchers and PhD students.

Visitors and hosts at CAS / RCEES April 2013.
Back row (L to R): Ed Tipping, Zulin Zhang, Yonglong Lu, Andy Sweetman, Steve Lofts.
Front row (L to R): Shijie Liu, Yajuan Shi, Li Xu

We arrived in Beijing on Sunday 14 April with enough time to allow visits to the Forbidden City and a hutong area (a relic of the old, low-rise Beijing). The business part of the visit began in earnest on Monday 15 April, with presentations from both our group of visiting researchers and the host scientists:

• Regional ecological risk of persistent toxic substances - Prof Yonglong Lu (RCEES, CAS)
• Research on metals in CEH - Prof Ed Tipping (CEH)
• Metal contamination and potential risks in drinking-water source sites of Beijing and industrial areas of Northern Yellow and Bohai Seas, China - Dr Wei Luo (RCEES, CAS)
• Intermediate dynamic model for metals - Dr Steve Lofts (CEH)
• International regulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs): How to use measurements and fate modelling to inform policy? - Dr Andy Sweetman (CEH / Lancaster University)
• Environmental behaviour of metals around a typical watershed - Mr Li Xu (RCEES, CAS)
• Organic contaminants in the environment - Dr Zulin Zhang (James Hutton Institute)
• Simulation of spatial explicit multimedia fate of POPs in Bohai Rim - Mr Shijie Liu (RCEES, CAS)

The presentations were followed by an in-depth discussion session, before a special welcome dinner arranged for us by our hosts.

Zhang, Sweetman, Yonglong Lu and Lofts awaiting dinner at the Blue Whale Hotel, Zhangjiakou

On Tuesday 16 April, we set out with our hosts on a field trip to the Guanting Reservoir and Yanghe River, during which we learned about the contamination status and associated problems of the reservoir, pollution sources to the river, and the competing demands for river and groundwater within the catchment.

Future collaboration

We stayed the night in the city of Zhangjiakou and on the following morning made a tour of the city and its river, before returning to Beijing, taking in the remarkable Great Wall of China en route. On Thursday morning we were able to visit the exquisite Summer Palace, before returning to CAS / RCEES for a tour of their excellent and comprehensive analytical facilities. This was followed by discussions about future collaborative possibilities, during which firm plans were made for the visit of a Chinese PhD student (Li Xu) to CEH's Lancaster site in July, to carry out metal chemistry modelling. Plans were also made for the extension of collaborative work on persistent organic pollutants with Lancaster University, and a risk assessment of pesticides in the Yanghe River catchment with James Hutton Institute. There was also more general discussion about the possibilities of larger-scale integrated work in the future.

Zhang, Lofts, Tipping and Sweetman hearing about the Guanting Reservoir from Prof Yonglong Lu

Yonglong Lu and his colleagues were terrific hosts. They made our visit both interesting and enjoyable, and we very much look forward to working with them in the future to try to understand and predict how China's natural environment will develop in the coming years and decades.

Additional information

Professor Ed Tipping, based at CEH's Lancaster site, is an environmental chemist focusing on acidity, metals, natural organic matter and nutrients in soils and waters, with an emphasis on modelling.

Dr Steve Lofts is a soil and aquatic chemist at Lancaster, with expertise in the chemistry of metals in soils and waters, particularly in relation to speciation and its consequences for metal transport, fate, bioavailability and toxicity.

CEH News: CEH and James Hutton Institute build research links in China   

CEH Blog: Building environmental research links in Beijing

50 years of predatory bird monitoring, and how you can help!



Barn owl

 Our colleagues who work on the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) have celebrated 50 years of long-term monitoring by refreshing the look of their website to provide even more information and background on their hugely important research which assesses the impact of chemical contaminants on birds of prey and the wider environment.


The PBMS relies on members of the public to send in deceased birds of prey and addled and deserted eggs (from licensed egg collectors only - it is against the law to interfere with bird nests and remove an egg without a licence). The PBMS scientific team hopes that the new website will help spread the word about how the scheme operates, the research they undertake, and encourage many more members of the public to send in samples!

A brief history



The PBMS is the longest running record of its kind: a long-term, large-scale monitoring scheme that quantifies a range of contaminants in the livers and eggs of certain species of predatory and fish-eating birds in Britain.

It started in 1962 when work began at the Monks Wood Experimental Station in Cambridgeshire to investigate the role of some insecticides and fungicides in the decline of several bird and mammal species. By 1966 the researchers were monitoring polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in predatory bird tissues and eggs and by 1970 they were also monitoring total mercury in the tissues and eggs. In subsequent years, the PBMS has focused on other chemicals.

Why is this important?

Chemicals are used to protect animal and human health, food security, and economic sustainability. It is important, however, to quantify any effect these substances may have on wildlife and the wider environment. Some pesticides, biocides and substances used in industry and manufacturing (for instance, polybrominated diphenyl ethers - PBDEs) can be accumulated by non-target wildlife species and have adverse effects.

The PBMS monitors the concentrations of contaminants of concern that are accumulated in the livers and eggs of sentinel species (a species whose well-being in a particular environment is indicative of the health of that environment as a whole). This provides information on the extent of risk to vertebrate wildlife (and potentially humans) in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, and how contamination varies temporally and spatially.

Through its monitoring the PBMS provides underpinning scientific evidence that informs policymakers and regulators in their decisions to authorise, restrict or withdraw pesticides, biocides and other chemicals. A current example is that PBMS monitoring of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in wildlife is used as an evidence base by regulators to assess the occurrence and importance of the impacts of these biocides on wildlife. This monitoring is also used by rodenticide manufacturers and suppliers to help them promote to their customers the importance and need for responsible use of rodenticides.

How you can help

Engagement with the public, in particular volunteer collection of carcasses and eggs, is crucial to the success of the PBMS. On average the PBMS receives some 400 birds of prey carcasses and 200 eggs per year. Body tissues and egg contents are stored in the PBMS archive at Lancaster. This now contains more than 40,000 tissue samples and 10,000 eggs – a tremendous resource that can be used to analyse long-term trends in contamination. The website contains details of what species the PBMS currently analyses and how to send in samples.

The Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme is currently funded by a consortium that comprises CEH, Natural England, the Environment Agency, the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It has also recently been instrumental in establishing a network between various different UK surveillance schemes that monitor disease and contaminants in vertebrate wildlife called the Wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monitoring and Surveillance (WILDCOMS) network. Where appropriate, samples, data and other resources will be shared between the network’s partners. The network will help to ensure an even more coordinated approach to detecting current and emerging chemical threats to the environment.

Be sure to check out the new PBMS website here. If you are interested in following their work, you can also like them on Facebook.


Posted by Paulette Burns, with thanks to Lee Walker, Jacky Chaplow and Richard Shore of the PBMS.