The Environment and Evolution theme at the University of Exeter's Streatham Campus, studies how organisms interact with their surroundings and seeks to understand the mechanisms that allow them to adapt to stressful or changing conditions. Key research activities within the theme include ecotoxicology and environmental and evolutionary biology. Major interest is centred around the effects of environmental contaminants, including endocrine disrupting chemicals, pesticides, platicizers, pharmaceuticals and nanoparticles on wildlife (including fish, mammals, birds and invertebrates) populations, and their underlying mechanisms of action.
Research extends from field studies to lab-based chemical exposures. There is also a strong activity in broader aspects of animal physiology that includes, investigating mechanisms of neural development, sex determination and differentiation, ionoregulation, acid-base balance, nitrogen excretion, respiratory gas exchange and hormonal and paracrine regulation of these processes. An extensive array of ecological, physiological and molecular, including genomic and population genetic approaches are used to develop an understanding on the mechanisms through which stressors impose their biological effects, assess the functional consequences of those effects, and for investigating population level outcomes and adaptation. Our work has strongly influenced government in chemicals and fisheries policies and has partnerships with industry, local, regional and international government bodies and with various trusts and other public bodies.
Research Funding
Members of the Environment and Evolution Theme for the period 2007-2011 have brought into Biosciences over £6M in external research income, from:
