EnviStress aims to gain knowledge about the input of local and long-range transported pollutants (e.g. persitent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury) and their effects in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The project will work on species in adjacent terrestrial (tawny owl Strix aluco) and freshwater (golden-eye duck Blucephala clangula) habitats, including detailed long-term samples from feathers and eggs. The data series of the project give the opportunity to assess spatiotemporal variation in exposure to different pollutants in avian wildlife, and to test hypotheses about the ecological and environmental factors shaping such variation, notably climate change, endeavouring a multidisciplinary approach to assess the impact of anthropogenic pollution stress.

The project is divided into two main work packages:

WP 1: Influence of ecological and environmental factors on spatiotemporal trends in pollutant exposure

WP 2: Environmental stress: pollution stress measures in the tawny owl in a multi stressor context