BEEP: Biological Effects of Environmental Pollution in marine coastal ecosytems

BEEP is a three-year EU research programme with about 30 participating Institutes. This progroject aims to improve and develop knowledge of biological markers in marine organisms exposed to chemicals, thereby improving the quality of environmental data for the protection of the environment and consumers of marine food.

The program will determine and standardise a battery of biomarkers to be used on a variety of ecological relevant species and to be implemented in national and international monitoring programmes.

The program is running in such marine area as.)

• Mediterranean Sea (and especially in Ebro Delta, Elefis Bay,Gulf of Marseille and Western Ligurian Coast )
• Baltic Sea
• North Sea
• North Atlantic

The methods should also be implicated in Environmental Risk Assessments to define acceptance criteria of exposure and effects and thereby representing sensitive methods that can be monitored in relevant field exposure scenarios.

BEEP has four main work-packages, one is for the development of new biomarkers, and the three others represent validation and response studies in three different coastal regions.

This integrated multi-disciplinary, site and marker research project combines specialEuropean expertise in biology, biochemistry, ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, data handling and economics which will enable a comprehensive study of selected coastal European environments and their responses when exposed to varying levels of pollution and numerous chemical contaminants.

The specific objectives of the BEEP project are:

• to develop new biological markers ranging over different levels of biological organisations
• to validate the use of selected biomarkers in specific sites for both routine assessment ofchemical contamination and for the improvement of national and international monitoring programmes
• to validate a methodology for the biomarker exploration in ecological risk assessment
• to prepare information and advices for user group, policy-makers and fishery institutionsabout biological effects of chemical contamination on coastal marine resources
• to establish a network of biomarker researchers through European countries.