AQUA-ONE HEALTH: Integrating Aquatic Biodiversity, Pathogen Ecology and Molecular Monitoring to Assess Environmental Health Risks

AQUA-ONE HEALTH proposes an interdisciplinary approach to investigating relationships between aquatic biodiversity, pathogen diversity and distribution, environmental change and potential health risks within the One Health framework.

The initiative focuses on freshwater and coastal ecosystems, where aquatic organisms, microorganisms, potential pathogens and environmental factors form interconnected ecological systems relevant to ecosystem, animal and human health.

Drawing on expertise in field ecology, aquatic invertebrate research, microbiological investigations and molecular genetics, our research team proposes to contribute ecological and molecular data to interdisciplinary biodiversity-health assessments.

The proposed contribution includes six interconnected research activities.

1. Aquatic biodiversity and environmental assessment

Conducting field surveys to assess aquatic biodiversity, community composition, habitat condition and environmental pressures. Integrating biological observations with hydrochemical parameters to characterise ecosystem conditions relevant to microbial and pathogen dynamics.

2. Pathogen diversity and ecological interactions

Investigating the diversity, occurrence and ecological associations of selected potentially pathogenic microorganisms in aquatic environments.

Combining microbiological and molecular approaches to examine relationships between pathogen occurrence, aquatic organisms, environmental conditions and biodiversity patterns.

3. Microbial communities and environmental pathogen monitoring

Applying microbiological and molecular methods to characterise microbial communities and detect selected pathogens or pathogen-associated genetic markers in aquatic environments.

Assessing associations between pathogen detection, water quality, habitat condition, biodiversity and anthropogenic pressures.

4. Molecular identification and biodiversity-health data integration

Using DNA barcoding, metabarcoding, environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis and other validated molecular approaches to identify aquatic organisms and characterise microbial communities.

Where appropriate, applying pathogen-specific molecular assays to support environmental detection and monitoring.

Integrating taxonomic, ecological, molecular, microbiological and environmental datasets into interoperable resources following FAIR data principles.

5. Environmental change and potential health risks

Investigating how pollution, climate change, habitat degradation and biodiversity shifts may influence microbial communities, pathogen occurrence and potential environmental exposure pathways.

Contributing ecological evidence to interdisciplinary assessments of health-related risks in cooperation with medical, veterinary and epidemiological partners.

6. Comparative case studies and One Health risk assessment

Contributing freshwater and coastal ecosystem case studies to a wider consortium portfolio examining biodiversity-health relationships across different environmental settings.

Supporting the development of ecological indicators, GIS-based spatial analyses and data-driven models linking biodiversity, environmental pressures, pathogen occurrence and health-related observations.

Expected Contribution to the Consortium

Our research team can contribute expertise in aquatic field surveys, invertebrate ecology, microbiological investigations, molecular genetics, DNA barcoding, metabarcoding, eDNA analysis, ecological monitoring and spatial analysis.

Potential outputs include aquatic biodiversity datasets, microbial and pathogen-monitoring results, molecular identification data, environmental indicators and spatial information supporting interdisciplinary One Health assessments.

We are particularly interested in work packages addressing aquatic biodiversity-health interactions, environmental pathogen monitoring, molecular diagnostics, ecological risk factors and integration of biodiversity and health-related data.

Proposed Role in the Consortium

Scientific partner for aquatic biodiversity assessment, environmental pathogen monitoring, microbiological and molecular investigations, ecological risk assessment and integration of environmental data into One Health research.

Our team can contribute to selected research use cases and collaborate with medical, veterinary, epidemiological and data science partners to investigate relationships between biodiversity, environmental change and pathogen occurrence.

AQUA-ONE HEALTH aims to strengthen the ecological and molecular evidence base for understanding how changes in aquatic ecosystems influence pathogen dynamics and potential risks to animal and human health.