New body set up to protect the biosphere will use microbes to clean contaminated soil and water, writes Mireia Pomar.
Biologists, geographers, geologists, biotechnologists, engineers and mathematical modellers are working together in Cork on a shared mission, to study and protect the environment.
University College Cork has established the Environmental Research Institute (ERI), which promotes, supports and develops environmental research and education.
This €19 million institute will look at diverse issues concerning the environmental sciences. The specialities available in the Institute range from environmental law and chemistry, to coastal processes and sustainable energy.
The Higher Education Authority provided €9 million for the building, equipment and recurrent funding. The other €10 million came from a variety of private and public sources, says the director of the institute Dr Alan Dobson.
"The ERI is composed of four centres of excellence," Dobson says. "The Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Centre and the Aquatic Services Unit are based in zoology and their interest is in fish genetics. The Aquatic Services Unit works with local councils and local companies in water quality in local water systems such as lakes and rivers.
"The Coastal and Marine Research Centre basically does environmental modelling under water and under the sea, and they map the coastline around Ireland," he adds.
"The Cleaner Protection Promotion Unit is based in environmental engineering and they look at the social impact on ordinary individuals with respect to implementation of environmental policy."
The Institute is composed of nine multi-disciplinary strategic research groups drawn mainly from the science and engineering faculties but also from the faculties of arts and law. The researchers at the ERI are involved in more that 200 projects.
"In the area of environmental biotechnology for example we are looking at how bacteria can clean up contaminated soils or water systems," says Dobson.
"The concept is that you can take bacteria that are present in the environment and you grow them up. Later you reintroduce them to that particular (contaminated) environment and if you give them some nutrients and some oxygen they would degrade environmental toxic compounds," he says.
Scientists at the ERI are currently working on an EPA-funded research project that looks at how to destroy toxic compounds known as PAHs using bacteria. The researchers have found PAHs to be the most abundant class of contaminant in the surface sediment from three polluted sites within Cork Harbour.
"PAHs are present in the local harbour of the city, and the levels are high," says Dobson. "We are looking at how bacteria can be used to destroy those PAHs or make them less toxic components, and of course, the bacteria we use are not damaging for humans," he says.
Microbial communities are also important for the life-support system of the planet. Researchers at the ERI are looking at their function in the environment and how they would be affected by climate change.
"If there are changes in climate, we can find out how these changes can affect the bacteria that are fundamental for the ecosystem," explains Dobson. "Any change in global temperature is going to affect the diversity of the bacteria, and they would not be functioning like they should be for the planet's support systems."
Another area of interest is the area of bioconversion. ERI scientists are looking at environmental contaminants such as hydrocarbon compounds and how they can be converted into biodegradable polymers.
Future research at the ERI will also look at producing new types of antibiotics or bioactive compounds. The majority of bioactive and antibiotic molecules used in the pharmaceutical and industrial sectors have microbial or bacterial origins. Most of the microbes, especially in the marine environment, have not yet been cultured, and the potential for discovery of novel biopharmaceuticals and antibiotics is enormous, Dobson believes.