1. Report of the Third General Meeting (GM3) & Cross-Working Group Meeting : ERBFacility - European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility, COST ACTION 16224Al Vrezec, Guy Duke, Rafael Mateo, Rui Lourenço, Antonio J. Garcia-Fernandez, Richard Shore, Paola Movalli, Chris Wernham, Pablo Sánchez Virosta, 2020, other monographs and other completed works Abstract: This is a report from the Third General Meeting (GM3) and Cross-Working Group Meeting of the COST Action European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility (ERBFacility, CA 16224). The Fourth Management Committee Meeting (MC4) took place back-to-back with the General Meeting. The Minutes of the Management Committee Meeting are published separately. GM3 brought together the ERBFacility community of Management Committee (MC) members, STSM holders and additional key resource persons active in the analysis, collections and field arenas in relation to the monitoring of contaminants in raptors. 55 participants attended GM3 from 24 COST Member Countries, of which 43 MC members and substitutes who also attended the Fourth Management Committee Meeting (MC4). This includes a multidisciplinary community of field ornithologists and ecologists, curators (from natural history museums, environmental specimen banks and others) and ecotoxicologists (Fig. 1). Around 30 participants attended the Cross-Working Group meeting. The full list of participants is annexed to this report. On Day 1, Tuesday 4th February, the morning session provided a recap of the objectives and rationale for the Action, an overview of the state of play from the three Working Groups in the Analysis, Collections and Field Arenas and presentations from mission holders. This was followed by an outline of plans for the remainder of the current Grant Period (GP3, to end April 2020) and for GP4 (1/5/20-30/4/21) and through to end of Action (October 2021). This was followed by break-out discussion on key cross-Arena issues for the remainder of the Action focussing on three topics: the ERBFacility proof of concept study (led by Rafael Mateo, Rui Lourenço), capacity building and training schools (led by Chris Wernham, Paola Movalli), and action communication and dissemination (led by Guy Duke, Chris Wernham, Al Vrezec).
Published in DiRROS: 04.09.2024; Views: 948; Downloads: 559
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2. The role of natural science collections in the biomonitoring of environmental contaminants in apex predators in support of the EU’s zero pollution ambitionPaola Movalli, Jan Koschorreck, Gabriele Treu, Jaroslav Slobodnik, Nikiforos Alygizakis, Andreas Androulakakis, Alexander Badry, Emanuel Baltag, Fausto Barbagli, Kevin Bauer, Koos Biesmeijer, Al Vrezec, 2021, other scientific articles Abstract: The chemical industry is the leading sector in the EU in terms of added value. However, contaminants pose a major threat and significant costs to the environment and human health. While EU legislation and international conventions aim to reduce this threat, regulators struggle to assess and manage chemical risks, given the vast number of substances involved and the lack of data on exposure and hazards. The European Green Deal sets a ‘zero pollution ambition for a toxic free environment’ by 2050 and the EU Chemicals Strategy calls for increased monitoring of chemicals in the environment. Monitoring of contaminants in biota can, inter alia: provide regulators with early warning of bioaccumulation problems with chemicals of emerging concern; trigger risk assessment of persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances; enable risk assessment of chemical mixtures in biota; enable risk assessment of mixtures; and enable assessment of the effectiveness of risk management measures and of chemicals regulations overall. A number of these purposes are to be addressed under the recently launched European Partnership for Risk Assessment of Chemicals (PARC). Apex predators are of particular value to biomonitoring. Securing sufficient data at European scale implies large-scale, long-term monitoring and a steady supply of large numbers of fresh apex predator tissue samples from across Europe. Natural science collections are very well-placed to supply these. Pan-European monitoring requires effective coordination among field organisations, collections and analytical laboratories for the flow of required specimens, processing and storage of specimens and tissue samples, contaminant analyses delivering pan-European data sets, and provision of specimen and population contextual data. Collections are well-placed to coordinate this. The COST Action European Raptor Biomonitoring Facility provides a well-developed model showing how this can work, integrating a European Raptor Biomonitoring Scheme, Specimen Bank and Sampling Programme. Simultaneously, the EU-funded LIFE APEX has demonstrated a range of regulatory applications using cutting-edge analytical techniques. PARC plans to make best use of such sampling and biomonitoring programmes. Collections are poised to play a critical role in supporting PARC objectives and thereby contribute to delivery of the EU’s zero-pollution ambition.
Keywords: zero pollution, biomonitoring, chemicals of emerging concern, Apex predator, raptor, marine mammal, otter
Published in DiRROS: 06.08.2024; Views: 1136; Downloads: 826
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3. Overview of raptor monitoring activities in EuropeAl Vrezec, Guy Duke, András Kovács, Pertti Saurola, Chris Wernham, Ian Burfield, Paola Movalli, Irena Bertoncelj, 2012, review article Abstract: Despite the key role of raptors (including birds of prey Falconiformes and owls Strigiformes) in ecosystems and their sensitivity to environmental change, a well coordinated, Europe-wide monitoring of raptors is lacking. EURAPMON, a Research Networking Programme of the European Science Foundation, was launched with the aim of establishing a sustainable Europewide network for monitoring of raptors. An overview of current monitoring schemes for raptor populations in 28 European countries, as reported by EURAPMON National Coordinators at the workshop in Murcia (Spain) in 2012, showed existing monitoring schemes to be limited to a restricted number of species (mostly diurnal and rare raptor species). The most widely monitored species are the Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos amongst diurnal raptors and the Eagle Owl Bubo bubo amongst owls. Broad coverage of a species range across Europe is reached only for restricted-range species. The key driver for monitoring, which is mostly coordinated by NGOs, is conservation, and the main end users are governmental institutions. International collaboration in the field of monitoring of raptors is mainly regional and not yet pan-European in scale. The involvement of volunteers in raptor monitoring was perceived as the main strength of many schemes, but insufficient manpower and a focus on rare species were recognised as the main weaknesses across Europe as a whole. Among priorities identified for the future development of monitoring schemes are: improvements to national coordination; support to increase the number of volunteers; and assurances of stable funding. Further analysis of EURAPMON questionnaires will identify knowledge gaps, which will steer good practice guidance on survey methodologies; the need for the latter was identified as the main benefit that National Coordinators expect to gain from international networking
Keywords: Europe, raptor monitoring scheme, birds of prey, owls, monitoring inventory
Published in DiRROS: 06.08.2024; Views: 1248; Downloads: 728
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