An international project, in which researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) participated, concluded that the construction of wetlands and the promotion of areas with vegetation help reduce antibiotics present in aquatic ecosystems.
After three years of research, the team presents the results this Tuesday and Nature-based solutions that help reduce antibiotics, pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. in aquatic ecosystems.
Speaking to Lusa, researcher Marisa Almeida, from the University of Porto center, clarified that the main objective of the project was “to eliminate antibiotics and, consequently, promote good water quality” through nature-based solutions. .
The project, titled NATURE and coordinated by Spain’s Institute for Environmental Assessment and Water Research, explored a range of nature-based solutions “from urban pollution sources to estuarine and coastal areas.”
Among the solutions studied, Marisa Almeida highlighted constructed wetlands, i.e. artificial systems that allow wastewater to pass through a porous medium, where green species are also planted, which allow the removal of contaminants.
These systems can serve as a “post-complement” to Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP), but also be an option to implement in areas where population density is low and there are no WWTPs, highlighted the researcher.
Marisa Almeida also highlighted the importance of vegetated areas on the shores of lakes, streams or estuaries in the process of eliminating antibiotics and other contaminants from marine ecosystems.
“The idea is to show that these areas with vegetation, which already exist, must be healthy and be promoted to eliminate these contaminants,” he noted.
Although the researchers’ focus is on antibiotics, throughout the project other contaminants and emerging pathogens were quantified, such as compounds from “detergents, cleaning products or even caffeine.”
“The concentrations are very low, therefore, there is no acute toxicity. However, there is chronic pollution because concentrations are constantly emitted and that is what later generates resistance,” he pointed out.
Marisa Almeida also assured that the nature-based solutions explored by the team “had good elimination results” and that they ended up “eliminating part of these compounds.”
The researcher now hopes that some of these solutions, such as wetlands, can be implemented in Portugal.
“These areas began to be built a few years ago in the country, but they were not successful, because despite being engineering systems, they require maintenance and they are not,” he said, and said that he hopes that the results of the project will promote their construction. and its subsequent maintenance in the country.
The conclusions of the NATURE project will be presented this Tuesday at the center of the University of Porto, in an event that will take place between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Funded by the ERA-NET Cofund Aquatic Pollutants, the project included researchers from Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany and Mali.
Source: Observadora
