Interdisciplinary Avenues: Part 2

Michael Gonsior
 

Marine biogeochemistry at large and the marine carbon cycle in particular is intertwined in numerous processes which requires the expertise of marine biogeochemistry, marine microbiologists, marine biologists and also marine engineers.

Teresa Rocha Santos
 

A significant knowledge advancement could be gained if the studies on the fate and behaviour of microplastics in the environment are tackled interdisciplinary and well supported by robust analytical work.

Damia Barcelo
 

There are plenty of examples. One very obvious is the contamination of water and soil under climate change. To solve this complex situation we will need hydrologists and modelers of climate, soil scientists to better understand the soil behavior under extreme events, ecotoxicologists to study the effects of pollutants in terrestrial and aquatic organisms, as well engineers and microbiologists to solve the removal and remediation of pollutants in wastewaters and soil and last but not least analytical chemists for the traceability and better understanding of chemical processes and risks . In short, without interdisciplinary work today it is impossible to solve complex environmental problems. Most importantly such interdisciplinary work should start from the beginning, with a well-planned interdisciplinary sampling campaign at the different case study sites and coordination between the different technical groups of a given funded project.

Torsten Schmidt
 

At ZWU, our approach is interdisciplinary because achieving a deep understanding of environmental systems and ways to reduce their impact is no longer possible with single disciplines. By collaborating with colleagues from chemistry, biology, medicine, engineering, social sciences and economics, we are working on enhancing our understanding of how multiple stressors, biodiversity and ecosystem processes interact in river ecosystems, and ultimately develop more effective strategies to safeguard ecosystem services in a world of global change. It is in this area that the $1 billion research grant mentioned above could be wisely spent, as the resources currently being invested in river restoration often fail to achieve their goals without us really understanding why. Wastewater-based epidemiology, as mentioned earlier, is another area where the full potential can only be realised through interdisciplinary efforts. 

Juliane Hollender
 

Linking exposure and hazard of chemicals to determine the risk for the environment and humans.

Emma Schymanski
 

The research projects my group performs, the challenges we are trying to address, are currently all interdisciplinary, they are almost impossible to tackle with a single discipline. Already our group name (Environmental Cheminformatics) and institute (Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine) gives this away, mixing environmental chemistry and informatics in an interdisciplinary centre focused on Systems Biomedicine (i.e. the medical and biological). Extend this to our collaborations and we add even more disciplines, all the way through to social sciences (digital history). When we are trying to understand the impact of the chemical space on both humans and the environment, we need input from many disciplines to develop this understanding, build a clearer picture of the problem and help pool many efforts to tackle this immense challenge. For so long we have focused on individual chemical impacts, yet our reality is a multitude of chemical exposures day in day out. It is impossible to act on all of these, so how can we prioritize the most critical areas to act before they have health impacts, without overreacting or developing regulatory actions that are impossible to implement? We need many chemicals and products to live our daily lives, treat deadly diseases and protect health, yet at the same time risk polluting our world to a state we can no longer clean up at a realistic cost if action is not taken. It is indeed a momentous task that needs the inputs of many – although I like a challenge, determining the impact of chemicals in the context of health and disease is a pretty big one, where I hope we are able to make (collectively) significant inroads in the coming years. 

Diana Aga
 

A very important problem right now that can be tackled by interdisciplinary work is the detection, remediation, substitution, and assessment of toxicity of PFAS. This is a wicked problem that will not be solved in the near future, unless scientists from many disciplines work together.

Andrew Ault
 

An important problem that is impacting the environment globally, is the expansion of harmful algal blooms across a range of locations, from cyanobacteria on the Great Lakes to blooms off the coast of China with high nutrient runoff to emerging patches of sargassum in the Atlantic. In fact, harmful algal blooms have been observed in all 50 US states. This is an informative example of when a changing climate has impacts beyond warmer temperatures or rising sea levels. In this case warmer temperatures and increasing or changing nutrient loadings are leading to more intense blooms that can be toxic or lead to unexpected health impacts. For example in Toledo, Ohio a few years ago a harmful algal bloom producing microcystin (a liver toxin) got into the municipal water supply and led residents to having to drink bottled water for days. I’m excited to be a part of an interdisciplinary team as part of the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health which brings ecologists, chemists, atmospheric scientists, and limnologists together to try and understand these blooms and the exposure risks from water and air to local communities. This is just one example of how interdisciplinary teams can tackle emerging environmental threats.