Centre for Research in Environmental Sciences
The Centre for Research in Environmental Sciences (CRES) brings together a group of environmental and geographical scientists to promote integrated multi- and interdisciplinary research into the environment, the damaging effects of pollution and how to remedy this damage. Together, these scientists provide a vibrant, critical mass of environmentally relevant research activity.
Around the theme of pollution and the environment, research areas include air quality, pollution in rivers, estuaries and landfill sites and environmental change.
Recent Projects
Improving air quality
Removing toxins from landfill sites
Research into environmental change
Monitoring the health of the Severn Estuary
The study of polluted contaminated and pristine freshwaters
Centre Staff and Collaborators
Government environmental legislation requires local authorities to monitor air quality on a continuous basis. The Centre provides a national focus for reviewing and assessing the air quality management process review in the United Kingdom. CRES has conducted pioneering research into the management of air quality, supported by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales. Other studies into the effects of air pollution on vegetation have looked at the causes of the decline of forests in Europe, the effect of trees on urban air quality and the impact of enhanced nitrogen on important wildflower grasslands.
Removing toxins from landfill sites
Research into the removal of pollution from land using biological methods has been carried out with the aim of providing alternatives to chemical and physical treatments. Studies have looked at the chemical interactions in water leaching from landfill sites, the capacity of natural soils for stabilising and absorbing metals or toxic organics, and how organic pollutants photo-degrade in water. Laboratory tests have developed the use of microscopic algae to remove heavy metals from water and soil leachate. Field experiments have looked at how microalgae behave in environments contaminated by heavy metals.
Research into environmental change
Changes in the environment have been studied from pre-history to the present day to help make predictions about changes that are likely in the future. Research into environmental change on a geological time-scale has involved reconstruction of past environments using a variety of techniques. The environmental impacts of intensive agriculture and mining have been linked by the work of CRES to changes in water quality and soil quality of floodplains. Other changes have included the loss of wetlands, hedgerows and the spread of desertification.
Monitoring the health of the Severn Estuary
Research, in collaboration with a variety of research institutes and agencies, has enabled the environmental health status of the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel to be assessed more effectively. Fish have been shown to be exposed to contaminated sediments, water and food. Linked research has identified bile metabolites in fish as an effective means of monitoring their exposure to pollutants such as hydrocarbons. The effects of long-term exposure to metals in crustaceans and molluscs have also been investigated. Compared with measurements taken over the past twenty years, CRES's research indicates that the levels of some pollutants in the estuary are decreasing, suggesting the success of management interventions. In a further study, the Environment Agency has funded research into the movement of chromium through water systems in the Veneto region of Italy.
The study of polluted, contaminated and pristine freshwaters
Researchers have the expertise and facilities to monitor the water quality and geochemistry of minewaters, rivers, lagoons and other freshwaters. One study, funded by the Environment Agency, looked at the development of electrochemical sensors for ammonia in freshwaters. Other research has investigated the presence of low-level concentrations of oestrogens in river waters.
Centre staff and collaborators
The Director of the Centre is Professor Jim Longhurst. There are 30 academic staff members and sixteen research fellows, associates and students. Staff collaborate closely with colleagues from the Centre for Research in Analytical, Materials and Sensors Science; the Centre for Research in Plant Science and the Research Centre for Environment and Planning at UWE.
Environmental research and training is carried out in partnership with regional and national bodies such as the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Environment Agency; and the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection (NSCA). Other project collaborators include Bristol City Council; Birmingham Internaitonal Airport; University Marine Biological Station Millport; Imperial College of Science; Technology and Medicine; the Universities of Hull, Oxford Brookes, Manchester, Newcastle, Bath, Lancaster, Sunderland, Cranfield, Bradford, East Anglia, Melbourne, Murdoch, Western Australia, Venice, Padua, Natal and Porto; Plymouth Marine Laboratory; New Zealand Dairy Research Institute and World Water Technologies.
Funding has been received from the Department of the Environment; Transport and the Regions; Environment Agency; Food Standards Agency; British Nuclear Fuels plc; NSCA; Portuguese Research Council; the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Ford Motor Co.; the Leverhulme Trust; the British Ecological Society; and the Fisheries Society of the UK.
Environmental Systems, pollution and remediation research is conducted in the following research groups:
- Severn Estuary Research Group
- Air Quality Management Resource Centre /Air Quality Research Group
- Unit of Applied Epidemiology
- Environmental Sciences home page
For further information contact:
Professor James Longhurst
Associate Dean, Faculty of Applied Sciences
Head of Department of Environmental Sciences
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol
BS16 1QY
Email: James.Longhurst@uwe.ac.uk
Tel 44 (0)117 965 6261 x3692 or Fax 44 (0)117 344 2904
