Susan's secondment at NIVA Copenhagen

I had an opportunity to undertake an external stay, organized in a hybrid structure, at the NIVA-DK (Norwegian Institute for Water Research) office in Copenhagen from May to July 2023. The secondment was organized in collaboration with Knut Erik Tollefsen and Jes Rasmussen. Based on available datasets, the main aim of the secondment was to define the boundary conditions of different methods for linking the ecotoxicity effect to species loss.

The following tasks were planned during the secondment:

1. Define boundary conditions and data quality requirements of different approaches for linking ecotoxicity to species loss (e.g., TITAN).
2. Systematically check different datasets (e.g., Dutch, Danish, French) for their coverage/scope and the related potential for use in different approaches to link ecotoxicity to species loss, considering related boundary conditions.
3. Add trait information to the selected database (e.g., French trait database/ freshwaterecology.info).
4. Investigate how (quantitative) AOP information can be used to inform damage on species loss and damage on functional diversity loss (optional, conducted with Knut Erik).

Upon successfully finishing the planned tasks, we pinpointed a potential opportunity for collaboration. This collaboration would come into play once I concluded my PhD studies, using the danish dataset, which offers an alternate method for assessing the effects of ecotoxicity on species diversity. Rather than focusing solely on species-level response, this approach centers on species traits that govern their susceptibility and resilience to stressors.

The welcoming reception and NIVA colleagues' assistance significantly enhanced this valuable experience.