Dr Julia Reiss
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management
- Email: julia.reiss@brunel.ac.uk
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences
Research area(s)
Ecology, Aquatic Ecology, Aquatic Organisms, Pollution of Aquatic Environments, Theotretical Ecology, Allometric Scaling, Protists, Meiofauna, Macrofauna, Antibiotic Pollution, Microplastic Pollution
Research Interests
I am an environmental scientist with a particular interest in the taxonomy and ecology of aquatic organisms and pollution of aquatic environments. In my research I combine ecological theory and environmental topics (e.g., nutrient-, antibiotic- or plastic pollution of fresh waters) and focus on vulnerable taxonomic groups such as organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye but that drive the bulk of ecosystem processes on earth. For example, freshwater quality (i.e., the health of groundwater, lakes or rivers) is maintained by a community composed of mostly tiny organisms.
Research grants and projects
Grants
Funder: BIG South London
Duration: March 2023 - October 2024
Funder: HORIZON EUROPE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Duration: December 2022 - January 2027
Recent evidence of increasing accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics (MnP) in soils and groundwater raise severe concerns by agricultural and water industries, food manufacturers, regulators, environmental interest groups and citizens. Private and public sectors require detailed understanding of environmental and public health risks posed by MnP in soils and groundwater. The PlasticUnderground Doctoral Network creates supra-disciplinary intersectoral capacity for analysing the fate, transport and impacts of MnP in soils and groundwater to develop solutions for reducing their environmental and public health risks, supporting the EC's circular plastic economy strategy. The central aim of the PlasticUnderground Doctoral Network is to deliver international scientific excellence through a holistic supra-disciplinary and inter-sectoral research and training network on solutions to the emerging crisis of MnP pollution in subsurface ecosystems in soils and groundwater, integrating knowledge across traditional discipline boundaries to benefit the public and private sectors. The supra-disciplinary research programme includes unique training opportunities for a cohort of 10 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs) (plus one individually funded through ETHZ as Associated Country partner) in environmental and social science, ecotoxicology, soil science and aquatic ecology, analytical chemistry, agronomy, data science and numerical modelling as well as responsible innovation, method standardization for use in regulatory decision making and risk assessment. The integrated training programme will prepare ESRs with skill sets that are urgently required in agricultural, water, chemical, and manufacturing industries, environmental and regulatory agencies, academia, and the public sector and includes training provision by key stakeholders that will directly benefit from the training in this network.Total funding amount EUR 2,700,000
Funder: Leverhulme Trust
Duration: September 2021 - December 2024
Microplastics are small particles that are found everywhere on earth. Groundwater is the largest source of liquid fresh water and globally 2.5 billion people exclusively depend on it to meet their freshwater needs. While initial surveys indicate microplastics presence in groundwater, the distribution, total quantity and impact of microplastics on groundwater ecosystems is completely unknown. In this 4-year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust we will use an interdisciplinary approach incorporating ecohydrology, analytical chemistry, mathematical modelling and ecology to 1) establish the first global baseline of groundwater microplastic contamination, 2) investigate microplastic uptake by, and effects on, groundwater food webs, 3) model the global risks of microplastics to groundwater.
Funder: European Union’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fund
Duration: September 2015 - September 2018
Outputs include Peralta-Maraver, Reiss et al. 2019 (Scientific Reports) and Danner, Reiss et al. 2018 (Science of the Total Environment). Website.
Funder: Natural Environment Research Council
Duration: -
Outputs include Peralta-Maraver et al. 2017 (Ecology and Evolution).Increasing human pressure is accelerating environmental change throughout the world, threatening water security for humans and aquatic biodiversity. One example is the widespread nutrient pollution of aquatic ecosystems which may result in biodiversity loss, changes in ecosystem processes and functional attributes such as secondary production and declining water quality. In temperate zones our understanding of the functional attributes of freshwater systems, the ecological services that they provide, and their response to nutrient enrichment is relatively advanced but in tropical/ sub-tropical systems data, and therefore understanding, are limited. We do not know whether the aquatic community responses, and the underlying biological processes, of both areas will be similar or different. These are central questions because understanding how environmental processes control resource availability (in this case clean water) is critical for the responsible use of that resource. We will initiate a long term partnership between Roehampton University (RU) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) to compare freshwater systems in temperate and sub-tropical areas across a gradient of nutrient concentrations, community structure (presence of cyanobacteria) and over time. We will identify similarities and differences in aquatic community response to eutrophication in these two distinct regions and evaluate the resultant impact on water quality. Initially we will jointly explore a detailed 8 year data set (2007-2014) for the Peri basin (Santa Catarina Island, southern Brazil) held by Petrucio and compare it with datasets for temperate freshwater systems held by Robertson and Reiss. The Peri basin is a protected area and is used for drinking water supply for a significant part of the conurbation of Florianopolis. It is beginning to show signals of eutrophication and water quality degradation with an increasing dominance and biomass of a widespread toxic cyanobacterium. Our partnership will further develop this data by measuring individual body sizes for organismal groups comprising the freshwater communities within the Peri basin across space and time. Body size is a crucial determinant of the structure of many ecological communities and is a new 'common currency' in ecological research enabling comparison of community structure and responses to disturbance within and between systems. This data will then be used to determine higher level community parameters such as body size spectra, secondary production and food web properties for the Peri basin and determine how these vary through time with changing nutrient concentrations and how this may effect water quality. The collaborators will additionally exchange and develop joint research ideas through informal discussions and seminars but also through the planned workshops and field trips in Brazil, RU conference and visits to freshwater research centres in the UK and by attendance and presentations at the British Ecological Society annual meeting.
Funder: Natural Environment Research Council Urgency Grant
Duration: February 2014 - September 2014
Outputs include Reiss et al. 2018 (Science of the Total Environment)
Funder: Royal Society
Duration: September 2011 - September 2013
Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in freshwater microcosms: manipulating species richness across a wide range of organisms
Funder: University of Roehampton
Duration: September 2011 - October 2011
outputs include Flores, Reiss et al. 2016 (PLOS ONE)
Funder: European Science Foundation
Duration: September 2008 - September 2010
Outputs include a special issue of the journal Oikos – Vol. 120 Issue 4, 2011
Project details
Microplastics in groundwater ecosystems: a global impact analysis (PlaStyx)
Please see details of current and past projects and grants here.