HORIZON-CL6-2027-01-BIODIV-07: Marine contribution to One Health approach

Expertise and contribution to sentinel-based ecosystem health monitoring. We have extensive expertise in investigating the use of opportunistic wildlife (specifically synanthropic gulls) as sentinels in human-modified environments. Through an interdisciplinary approach integrating ecology, environmental pollution, microbiology, and health metrics, and grounded in a One Health framework, our work has generated robust evidence on environmental health risks.

Our research has characterized the occurrence and dynamics of pollution (plastics and persistent organic pollutants) in urban gull populations and identified a range of pollutants and pathogens associated with human activities. Beyond detection, our work has provided actionable insights to support long-term environmental management and policy-making, demonstrating the value of sentinel wildlife in tracking anthropogenic impacts.

Building on this foundation, we offer targeted expertise on how sentinel wildlife can be used to assess the health of ecosystems, wildlife, and human populations coexisting in human-altered habitats. Our focus lies in understanding the presence, interactions, and dynamics of both biological stressors (e.g., pathogens) and abiotic stressors (e.g., pollutants) within a unified One Health perspective.

We are uniquely positioned to contribute through our well-established long-term study system in the Barcelona urban ecosystem, which encompasses both terrestrial and marine impacted environments. Since 2018, we have continuously monitored this system using yellow-legged gulls as sentinel species, generating a strong track record of scientific outputs, including peer-reviewed publications and funded research projects.

Specifically, our potential contribution will focus on:

1. Advancing integrative risk assessment, by developing holistic approaches to evaluate how harmful pathogens and pollutants interact with wildlife, environmental compartments, and trophic resources over time, thereby improving predictions of impacts on both animal and human health.

2. Elucidating underlying mechanisms, by identifying the drivers of emergence, persistence, and dissemination of harmful agents in complex urban ecosystems, which is essential for designing effective and evidence-based management strategies.

Overall, our input to the project will position synanthropic wildlife as key allies in environmental monitoring, contributing to the development of early warning systems and supporting proactive, science-based management of urban ecosystem health within an integrative One Health framework.