Plastic pollution is a global concern, persistent in marine and freshwater systems; global ocean plastic flow is expected to triple by 2040. Research on plastic quantification and their impacts is centralised mostly on microplastics (MPs) addressing marine systems, whereas studies on nanoplastics (NPs) are still emerging. M/NPs potential threat to freshwater ecosystem processes is unclear given that their realistic concentrations in the environment is uncertain (Seena et al. 2022). In freshwaters, plant litter is a pivotal carbon and energy source accounting for ~70% of the annual carbon flow on earth. Plant litter decomposition is a key ecosystem process dictated mainly by fungi, particularly aquatic hyphomycetes (AQH) and followed by bacteria (to a lesser degree). These microbes transfer energy and nutrients to invertebrates. Leaf litter decomposition is sensitive to water quality, hence suggested as a proxy for freshwater health and integrity. Among plastics, polyethylenes (PEs) are widely abundant in aquatic systems, however there are no studies addressing their impact on leaf litter decomposition. Recently, it was shown that low concentrations of polystyrene (PS) NPs (up to 25µg/L) exerted significant impact on leaf litter decomposition and AQH; with small sized PS NPs demonstrating a pronounced impact. One of the equal concerns of NPs is their potential to adsorb priority pollutants such as metals, serving as a pollution point source. Stream metal pollution is a global concern, prevalent in Portugal due to heavy mining activities. Our main goal is to develop an interdisciplinary approach to assess the realistic concentration of M/NPs in the rivers; to study the direct impacts of environmentally realistic concentrations of commercially available PE NPs and their interactive effects in metal-polluted stream waters. Leaf litter decomposition will serve as a model to study the NPs impact, across multiple levels of biological organisation-from community to cellular responses of litter decomposers. To accomplish this, experts in aquatic ecology, microbiology, ecotoxicology, molecular biology, nanotechnology and mine engineering are assembled. RioPlast will be the first study to assess PE NPs using a range of realistic environmental concentrations based on the field studies. Accordingly, water and sediments will be sampled along the Portuguese rivers (Mondego, Lis and Vouga) and quantified. Next, in the laboratory we will utilise PE NPs to assess their physico-chemical behaviour and impacts on ecosystem processes and biota along a metal pollution gradient. Realistic environmental concentrations of NPs quantified in the Portuguese rivers will be chosen to suspend PE NPs along a gradient of mine drainage waters. The physico-chemical properties of NPs suspended in metal polluted waters will be characterised. Next, we will test the impact of NPs on leaf litter decomposition and the microbial decomposer community and invertebrates leaf litter consumption rates. Effects on AQH cellular targets and antioxidant defen c e mechanisms will also be explored, since AQH are primary decomposers being the first to exhibit distress signals, serving as early stress indicators. Cellular responses of selected species of AQH to NPs will be studied by evaluating reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Also, fungal cells' ability to trigger an efficient antioxidant defence system will be assessed by quantifying antioxidant enzymes. Additionally, plasma membrane and DNA damage will be evaluated. Overall, RioPlast is envisaged to bring novel insights on the NPs impacts on rivers exposed to mine drainage . RioPlast has potential practical applications such as providing database to pollution control agencies, detection of pertinent oxidative stress biomarkers, facilitating risk assessment and providing critical information to policymakers. It is also significant from a social/educational viewpoint raising awareness on plastic pollution in rivers, which is often ignored. A poluição por plásticos é uma preocupação global, persistente nos sistemas aquáticos e prevê-se que o fluxo de plástico nos oceanos triplique até 2040. Estudos de quantificação e impacto de plásticos estão focados em microplásticos (MPs) em sistemas marinhos, surgindo agora os primeiros estudos sobre nanoplásticos (NPs). O risco dos M/NPs sobre os processos dos ecossistemas de água doce não é claro pois as concentrações ambientais reais não são conhecidas. Nos rios, os detritos vegetais (folhada) são a principal fonte de carbono e energia. Globalmente, a folhada representa cerca de 70% do fluxo anual de carbono no planeta. A decomposição da folhada em rios é controlada principalmente por fungos, particularmente por hifomicetes aquáticos seguido, em menor grau, por bactérias, a decomposição da folhada é sensível à qualidade da água pelo que pode ser usada como um indicador da saúde dos ecossistemas dulçaquícolas. Entre os plásticos, os polietilenos (PEs) são muito abundantes em sistemas aquáticos, no entanto não há estudos que abordem o seu impacto na decomposição da folhada. Recentemente, foi demonstrado que baixas concentrações de NPs de poliestireno afectam significativamente a decomposição da folhada e os hifomicetes aquáticos, principalmente os NPs de poliestireno de pequeno tamanho. Uma outra preocupação dos NPs é o seu potencial para adsorver metais, funcionando como fontes pontuais de poluição. Os metais nos sistemas fluviais são uma preocupação mundial, preeminente em Portugal devido a uma forte e histórica atividade mineira. O nosso principal objetivo é avaliar, numa abordagem interdisciplinar, a concentração real de M/NPs nos rios, os impactos diretos das concentrações ambientais reais de NPs- polietileno e os efeitos interativos entre NPs- polietileno nas águas ribeirinhas poluídas por metais. A decomposição da folhada servirá como modelo no estudo do impacto de NPs em múltiplos níveis de organização biológica (desde a comunidade de decompositores aquáticos às suas respostas a nível celular). Para isso, estão reunidos neste projeto especialistas em ecologia aquática, microbiologia, ecotoxicologia, biologia molecular, nanotecnologia e engenharia de minas. O RioPlast será o primeiro estudo a avaliar os NPs- polietileno utilizando uma gama de concentrações ambientais realistas baseadas em estudos de campo. Água e sedimentos serão recolhidos ao longo de três rios portugueses, M/NPs serão quantificados por técnicas diversas. Serão avaliados os impactos físico-químicos de NPs de polietileno nos processos do ecossistema e biota, num gradiente de poluição por metais. As concentrações ambientais de NPs quantificadas nos rios portugueses serão escolhidas para ressuspender NPs de polietileno num gradiente de águas de drenagem de minas. As propriedades físico-químicas dos NPs em águas com metais serão caracterizadas. O impacto dos NPs será testado na decomposição da folhada, na comunidade microbiana de decompositores e nas taxas de consumo de folhada pelos invertebrados. Os mecanismos de defensa antioxidante dos fungos (hifomicetes aquáticos) também serão explorados, pois sendo eles decompositores primários, são dos primeiros a sentir o efeito dos poluentes na água, servindo como indicadores de stress precoce. A capacidade das células fúngicas de desencadear um sistema de defesa antioxidante eficiente será avaliada por quantificação de enzimas antioxidantes. Serão também avaliados danos na membrana plasmática e no ADN. Em suma, o RioPlast prevê trazer novas informações sobre os impactos dos NPs nos rios. Do ponto de vista prático, o RioPlast fornecerá dados às agências ambientais; simplificará a avaliação de risco dos NPs dando informações críticas aos decisores políticos; procurará detetar biomarcadores de stress oxidativo pertinentes. Do ponto de vista social/educativo, sensibilizará para a poluição de plásticos, frequentemente ignorada em rios.

We, animals and many other organisms are built from lots of cells. These are not simple building blocks that are passively stuck together, but each cell contains an elaborate machinery to connect to its neighbours and exert force on one other. This crucial ability is provided by multiple adhesion molecules at the cell surface that link up to the force generating cytoskeleton via adapter proteins. The balancing of forces and how strong different cells stick to each other are all important cues in the orchestration of cell motion and differentiation during development. And it is now clear that mechanical changes on the cellular level can alter the fate of the tissue. In cancer, the detachment of cells leading to metastasis is related to a change of cell mechanics. We are interested to dissect the basis of intracellular mechanical signalling in cell-cell adhesion. For this, we are establishing a new international collaboration to study the role of forces in the process of cell adhesion. We use novel assay to look at the cell-cell adhesion interface with high resolution fluorescence microscopy by replacing one cell with a planar lipid bilayer containing adhesion molecules. This will be combined with three modes of mechanical manipulations: confinement, shear stress and lateral stretch. In addition to fluorescence microscopy techniques to follow the dynamics of adhesion and cytoskeletal proteins, we will employ interferometric reflection microscopy to reveal the fluctuations of the cell membrane with nanometre precision. This will give us an unprecedented insight into the protein dynamics and cell membrane mechanics during cell adhesion. The tools for such experiments are often built by individual labs which limits the range of people having access to such equipment. That's why we want to use the combined expertise of this collaboration to design and engineer MechanoWOSM, an open source microscope platform for mechano-biology experiments.

This proposal is to integrate researchers from India into an existing International Partnership that brings together scientists from countries affected by damaging and potentially catastrophic earthquakes in the Alpine-Himalayan region and central Asia. This Partnership, established through an earlier (and current) NERC-IOF grant and a current NERC-ESRC consortium grant and led by investigators in the NERC-funded COMET+* consortium, will be enhanced and expanded through the participation of India. The Partnership was formed as a response to a series of high-impact earthquakes over the last decade, which emphasized the stark contrast existing today between the effects of earthquakes in rich and developing nations. In terms of human life, the risk is overwhelmingly concentrated in the developing world, and predominantly in continental interiors, with the Alpine-Himalayan region and central Asia being particularly threatened. Many communities and cities in this region are known to be vulnerable because of past earthquakes, but they now have considerably larger exposed populations. A first and essential step in reducing that vulnerability is to improve the level of knowledge and characterization of the hazard concerned; which is far below, for example, California or Japan. That task requires the engagement of scientists in the countries concerned, but would be greatly aided by the expertise available in the international scientific community, even in countries where the local scientific base is already strong. In particular, two geological effects contribute to continental Asia's special vulnerability: (1) Earthquakes in continental interiors typically occur on widely-distributed faults that are poorly known and move relatively infrequently. By comparison, those on plate boundaries adjacent to oceans (such as Japan, Chile) occur on faults that are more localized, better known and move more often. (2) Many human settlements in continental interiors concentrate (and then grow) in locations close to earthquake-generating faults, which control topography, water supply or trade routes. Improving knowledge and understanding of the earthquake hazard is therefore inescapably linked to the first-order scientific question of how continental tectonics works: a cutting-edge priority at the highest level in international science, which also requires the full range of observational, theoretical and technical capabilities now available to the scientific community. The issues involved in addressing earthquake hazard and earthquake science in the Alpine-Himalayan region and central Asia are therefore best tackled by international partnerships of scientists, which can help bring an appropriate mixture of expertise, technology, man-power and training to bear in each area or country. That is the point of the Partnership we aim to enhance here by facilitating the participation of scientists from India. The Partnership functions through meetings, workshops and training activities, including a summer school and exchange visits, principally of young scientists between the UK and participating countries. The principal Project Partners in the original IOF proposal, who also contribute substantially to the costs, are Italy, Kazakhstan and China. Supporting members include Greece, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It was always the intention that others would join later, and the addition of India proposed here will add one of the most vulnerable countries in the entire Alpine-Himalayan-Asia region. The intention is that the benefits and functioning of the Partnership will continue well beyond the duration of the IOF award. *COMET+ is the Dynamic Earth and Geohazards Group of NERC's National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO): see (http://comet.nerc.ac.uk)

The population of India lives under the threat of large and destructive earthquakes. Recent studies by this project team have revealed that the spatial nature of this threat varies significantly more across India than was previously known: the earthquake-prone Himalayan mountain belt contains significant spatial variations in fault geometries, and 'intraplate' central India contains numerous previously-unrecognised active faults. These spatial variations in faulting are critical because they control the nature of the earthquake hazard faced by local populations. Understanding these variations is therefore the most effective way to build resilience to this hazard, which will vary between regions. In this project we will build upon our previous research to transform our understanding of earthquake hazard in India, and enhance resilience to that hazard, by completing the following objectives: Objective 1: we will use seismology, fieldwork, and Quaternary dating to establish the locations, characteristics, and future earthquake potential of a wide range of active faults in two case study regions of India, including both the Himalaya and intraplate regions. We will use this knowledge to establish new machine-learning-based methods of identifying and characterising active faults throughout the country, thereby allowing us to make a new national-scale assessment of earthquake potential. Objective 2: we will use recently-developed methods of simulating the ground shaking generated by earthquakes, combined with our results from Objective 1, to map the spatial variability of potential future ground shaking. We will therefore be able to produce updated India-wide hazard and risk models and maps. This work will take account of the spatial variations in fault geometry and characteristics, which are not yet fully utilised in the standard hazard-mapping methodologies used by most nations and mapping agencies. Objective 3: we will combine research into governance and decision making processes with workshops with stakeholders (e.g. Disaster Management Agencies, the Civil Service, and local communities), to transform our results from objective 2 into increased resilience. Because the nature of the earthquake hazard varies across India (in terms of the time intervals between significant earthquakes, and the ground shaking those events will produce), the most effective methods for increasing resilience will also vary between locations. By researching the processes of, and barriers to, community uptake and legislation, we will establish the most effective mitigation strategies for each style of active faulting. We will particularly focus on the flow of knowledge between state and community level, and the most effective ways to remove barriers from that process. Our research therefore crosses the NERC and ESRC remits, improves our scientific understanding of earthquakes in India, and applies this knowledge to build resilience. To achieve this aim we have assembled a team that has a proven track record of working in India as part of long-term and successful India-UK collaborations. Our proposed work directly builds upon proof-of-concept studies undertaken as part of our ongoing India-UK collaborations, which have demonstrated our ability to undertake fundamental earthquake science in the country and to successfully engage with relevant stakeholders. Our vision is that the methodologies we will develop and apply to the diverse range of active faults in India will represent a world-leading example of how to characterise earthquake hazard and enhance population resilience, which can then be replicated in the vast majority of earthquake-prone regions worldwide.

The Rationale: We need freshwater for agriculture, industry and human existence. Access to good quality water is essential for sustainable socio-economic growth. Freshwater ecosystems are finite and globally threatened by increasing environmental degradation caused by destructive land-use and water-management practices and increasing industrialization. The scale of socio-economic activities, urbanisation, industrial operations and agricultural practices in India has reached the point where watersheds across India are being severely impacted. For example, gross organic pollution in India's freshwater resources are common place, resulting in severe toxic burdens, depletion of dissolved oxygen levels and severe pathogenic contamination. Eutrophication, arising from enrichment with nutrients caused by sewage and agro-industrial effluents and agricultural run-off, greatly impact on lakes and impounded rivers. Groundwater bodies are susceptible to leaching from waste dumps, mining and industrial discharges. Finally, despite their potential threat, the distribution, scale and levels of newly emerging water contaminants, e.g. endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), are largely unknown. We must address the consequences of both present and future contaminant threats to water catchments if we are to provide action that provide solutions at all levels. The implementation of sensors for monitoring important biological and chemical parameters, through time and space, is the indispensable basis for accurate assessments whilst the deployment of state-of-the-art water treatment technologies for the removal of pollutants will enhance water protection and security. The Proposition: Firstly; improve our ability to determine the presence of pollution in water courses and the development of novel sensing approaches to help reduce or prevent pollution at source. We will do this via; The deployment and implementation of new in situ fluorescence sensors that have been developed by UWE, Bristol and Chelsea Technology Group (CTG) as part of a current NERC Grant (NE/K007572/1) The development of a novel bacterial bio-sensor using bio-reporter strains that was first conceived in India (Bose Institute), for the detection of endocrine disrupting chemicals in water bodies and effluents. Secondly; develop novel approaches to reduce or prevent pollution detected above at the source via; The development of novel off-grid treatment technologies, for rural and urban areas, to remove pollutants (sensed above) based on ultrafiltration membrane technology and bacterial remediation using bio-reactors. Longer-term Impact: To understand the impact of sewage contamination and the bacterial quality of freshwater catchments in India. To quantify changes in sewage contamination levels through time and space and to understand how these changes are affected by land use and effluent discharges. Our fluorescence sensor will be used to identify, monitor and detect bacterial contamination from sewage discharges entering waters at a catchment scale, including urbanised areas. To develop a bacterial sensor, using bio-reporter strains, for the detection of endocrine disrupting chemicals in discharges and freshwaters. We will also assess the feasibility of the catabolic potential of these biosensor strains for bioreactor-based remediation of EDCs and implement an off-grid UF membrane technology platform for the treatment of bacterial contamination. This UK/India partnership will involve the deployment of UK developed technologies in India and the subsequent development of Indian inspired sensors and treatment approaches in the UK.