DrJake Martin

My research takes an integrative approach to understanding the impacts of human-induced rapid environmental change on wildlife. Primarily my research focuses on the ecological effects of emerging chemical pollutants in aquatic ecosystems (but also includes noise pollution, thermal pollution, and invasive species). Environmental pollution with synthetic chemicals is recognised as one of the fastest-growing agents of global change, exceeding that of many well-recognised environmental megatrends (e.g. rising CO2 emissions, land loss to agriculture, and biodiversity loss). It is essential that we understand if, and how, emerging pollutants impact wildlife and ecosystems.

My key research themes are, as follows:

(1) Behavioural ecotoxicology
Animal behaviour has emerged as a critical tool in measuring chemical-induced impacts. The growing use of behaviour in ecotoxicology is primarily a result of its sensitivity to chemical disruption and its direct link to population-level outcomes. Concerningly, many emerging pollutants—particularly pharmaceuticals (e.g. antidepressants, anxiolytics, and endocrine disruptors)—have the potential to alter the behaviour of exposed wildlife. Indeed, there is now a building body of evidence, including my own work, reporting that environmentally realistic levels of emerging pollutants can disrupt a range of important behaviours in wildlife. Within the research theme of behavioural ecotoxicology, there are three principal sub-themes around which I am building my research: behavioural variation, collective behaviour, and lab-to-field.

(2) The gut microbiome
The relationship between an animal host and its gut microbiome is a rapidly expanding area of research in the Life Sciences. Recent evidence has established strong links between the gut microbiome, host homeostasis, and behaviour. An animal’s microbiome resides at the interface between the host and its environment; in essence, the microbiome represents a buffer and first line of defence against contaminants and environmental stressors. A number of chemical pollutants (e.g. metals and antibiotics) have the potential to disrupt the microbiome of animals.

My most recent research theme is to understand the impacts of chemical pollution on the gut microbiome of exposed wildlife, and the consequences for their metabolism, growth, and behaviour. My preliminary results suggest that pharmaceutical exposure can cause perturbation of the gut microbial community at environmentally realistic levels, which appears to be linked to changes in neurotransmitter expression in the gut and brain.

(3) Evidence synthesis
In combination with my experimental research, I also employ evidence synthesis to understand the effects of emerging pollution on wildlife. Evidence synthesis is the process of collating and combining data from multiple sources to establish an evidence base, identify gaps in knowledge, and analyse overall or absolute effects. Typically this takes the form of systematic literature reviews and meta-analysis.

Evidence synthesis is particularly important for research measuring the impacts of pollution, as to accurately inform policymakers, we must first build a database and calculate the risk of pollutants in a repeatable and unbiased manner. One of the current evidence synthesis projects I am leading is a large-scale systematic map, addressing the effects of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour. Once my team and I have completed metadata extractions for the primary research articles on this topic, it will be presented as a publicly available database for use in policymaking and for meta-analysis.

You can read more about them on my web page https://jakemartin.org/research-program/