Centre Member Research in the Field | Centre for Aquatic Environments

Centre for Aquatic Environments members’ Newly Published Article highlights water pollution reporting failures”

Pioneering research by Dr Sarah Purnell on flaws in water and sewerage company pollution reporting has been published in a leading global journal. 7 October 2021 The study published in the journal PLOS ONE by Dr Purnell – a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Applied Sciences – marks the first external analysis of…

Scuppered Dreams – Abandoned Boats

The ocean is the final sink for most of the anthropogenic waste. Concern about accumulation of marine debris has increased in the past decades and scientists at the University of Brighton have recently uncovered a new emerging contaminant – FibreGlass reinforced plastic (FRP or GRP). One of the main challenges to dealing with this ever…

Scuppered Dreams: A community action research project to explore the impacts of microfibre pollutants from abandoned boats on marine environments

An exciting new project led by two Centre for Aquatic Environments researchers, Dr Corina Ciocan, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology from PABS , and Dr Mary Gearey, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography from SET, is underway in 2021. Funded by the University of Brighton’s Radical Futures initiative(https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research-and-enterprise/organisation/brighton-futures/radical-futures/index.aspx) this one year project builds on research already…

Centre Director wins prestigious international award

The Director of the Centre for Aquatic Environments, Professor Chris Joyce, has been recognised for his wetland research by the world’s leading organisation representing wetland professionals. Professor Joyce, an ecologist in the School of Environment and Technology who specialises in the study of wetland vegetation, management and restoration, has received a special 40th Anniversary Award…

Tackling Aquatic Contamination in Partnership with Southern Water

Dr Sarah Purnell, Principal Research Fellow within our Centre for Aquatic Environments, has recently published research conducted in collaboration with Southern Water. This research addressed the challenge of mapping and predicting metaldehyde ( a synthetic aldehyde pesticide used worldwide to remove molluscs by the agricultural sector) using existing water industry and publicly available datasets. Metaldehyde…

Saltmarsh Restoration on the River Adur initiated by the Environment Agency

Coastal ecosystems including saltmarshes provide a wide range of ecosystem services including flood defence, carbon sequestration and storage and support high biodiversity including breeding and migratory birds and commercially important juvenile fish. However, these ecosystems are under threat from climate change, urban expansion and development. The Environment Agency have initiated a restoration scheme along the…