Professor Richard Shore

Section Head and Head of Site, CEH at Lancaster

Role

I head a section of some 60 staff and students. The section comprises CEH’s centralised analytical chemistry facility, CEH’s applications development team, and a number of research groups whose interests largely focus on the fate, behaviour and effects of chemicals (macronutrients and contaminants) in the environment.

I am also the current Head of Site at CEH at Lancaster.

Research interests

Chemicals are vital for health and economic development but can also have adverse impacts on wildlife and people. For economic development to be sustainable, it is essential that the risks associated with the manufacture, use and disposal of chemicals can be assessed scientifically and objectively. This requires scientific data and understanding of what contaminants are present in the environment and what effects they may have.

My research centres on studying the exposure and effects of pollutants, biocides and pesticides in wild birds and mammals, including:

• monitoring current levels of contamination of wild mammals and birds by pollutants, biocides and pesticides
• identifying new chemical threats to wildlife
• understanding how and why contamination varies geographically and over time
• understanding what drives the transfer of chemicals along food-chains
• investigating, assessing and predicting the impacts contamination may have.

The results from this research help identify chemical risks, develop appropriate assessment and mitigation strategies, and guide the formulation of effective policies to protect environmental and human health.

More details about our long-term, large scale monitoring of contaminants in birds can be found on CEH's Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) website.

Brief CV

• Section Head (from 2007) and Head of Site (from 2008), CEH at Lancaster  
• Honorary Professor, Lancaster University (2011-2014)
• Researcher in vertebrate ecotoxicology and author / co-author of >200 publications (includes >100 ISI journal papers)  
• Appointee to Defra's Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) (2011-14)
• Member of the Environmental Panel of the Advisory Committee on Pesticide (ACP) (2000 onwards)
• Member of the editorial board of Environmental Pollution (2002 onwards)
• Member of the International Travel Grant Panel of the Royal Society (2010 onwards)
• Member of the Science Committee of the Society of Environmental Chemistry & Toxicology (SETAC) (2009-12)
• Member of NERC’s Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry Facility grant committee (2008 onwards)
• External lecturer on MSc courses for the Universities of Birmingham (from 2002) and London (from 2005)
• Appointee to Defra's Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS) (2008-11)
• Honorary Professor, Queen's University, Belfast (2006-11)
• Conference Secretary, The Mammal Society (1999-2004)
• PhD University of Manchester (1988)
• BSc (Hons) Zoology, Class 1, University of Bristol (1984)

Selected recent publications

Please see also the NERC Open Research Archive.

Llabjani, V., Crosse, J.D., Ahmadzai, A.A., Patel, I.I., Pang, W., Trevisan, J., Jones, K.C., Shore, R.F., Martin, F. [in press].  Differential effects in mammalian cells induced by chemical mixtures in environmental biota as profiled using infrared Spectroscopy. Environmental Science & Technology.

Crosse, J.D., Shore, R.F., Jones, K.C., Pereira, M.G. 2012. Long term trends in PBDE concentrations in gannet (Morus bassanus) eggs from two UK colonies.  Environmental Pollution 161 93-100.

Llabjani, V., Trevisan, J., Jones, K.C., Shore, R.F., & Martin, F.L., 2011. Derivation by Infrared Spectroscopy with Multivariate Analysis of Bimodal Contaminant-Induced Dose-Response Effects in MCF-7 Cells. Environmental Science & Technology 45 6129-6135

Leslie, H.A., Leonard, P.E.G., Shore, R.F., Walker, L.A., Bersuder, P.R.C., Morris, S., Allchin, C.R. & de Boer, J. 2011. Decabromodiphenylether and hexabromocyclododecane in wild birds from the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands: screening and time trends. Chemosphere 82 88-95. doi 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2010.09.073

Shore R.F., Pereira, M.G., Walker, L.A. & Thompson, D.R. 2011. Mercury in Non-marine Birds and Mammals. pp. 609-624 in Environmental Contaminants in Biota: Interpreting Tissue Concentrations, Second Edition (Eds W.N Beyer & J.P.Meador,),CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL. ISBN: 978-1-4200-8405-4

Thomas, P.J., Mineau, P., Shore, R.F., Champoux, L., Martin, P., Wilson, L., Fitzgerald, G., Elliott, J. 2011. Second generation anticoagulant rodenticides in predatory birds: probabilistic characterisation of toxic liver concentrations and implications for predatory bird populations in Canada. Environment International 37 914-920

Tosh, D.G., McDonald, R.A., Bearhop, S., Llewellyn, N. R., Fee, A., Sharp, E.A., Barnett, E., Shore, R.F.  2011. Does small mammal prey guild affect the exposure of predators to anticoagulant rodenticides? Environmental Pollution 159 3106-3112.  doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2011.03.028

Tosh, D.G., Shore, R.F., Jess, S., Withers, A., Bearhop, S., Montgomery, W.I., McDonald, R.A. 2011. User behaviour, best practice and the risks of non-target exposure associated with anticoagulant rodenticide use. Journal of Environmental Management 92 1503-1508

Walker,L.A., Beith, S.J., Lawlor, A.J., Moeckel, C., Peréira, M.G., Potter, E.D., & Shore, R.F. 2011. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and inorganic elements in predatory bird livers and eggs 2007 to 2009: a Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) Report. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster, 30pp

Walker, L.A., Lawlor, A.J., Chadwick, E.A., Potter, E., Pereira, M.G. & Shore, R.F. 2011. Inorganic elements in the livers of Eurasian otters, Lutra lutra, from England and Wales in 2009 - a Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) report. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster, UK

Anderson, O.R.J., Phillips, R.A., Shore, R.F., McGill, R. A., McDonald, R.A., Bearhop, S. 2010. Element patterns in albatrosses and petrels: influence of trophic position, foraging range, and prey type. Environmental Pollution 158 98-107.

Blanco-Penedo, I, López-Alonso, M., Miranda, M., Hernández, J., Benedito, J.L. & Shore, R.F. 2010. Non-essential and essential trace element concentrations in meat in cattle reared under organic, intensive or conventional production systems. Food Additives and Contaminants Part A, 27 36-42

Chaplow, J.S., Walker, L.A., MacKechnie, C.J. & Shore, R.F. 2010. A scoping study of specimen archiving activity in the UK and the potential for a UK Environmental Specimen Bank. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology report to the Environmental Research Funders Forum. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK, pp. 26, ISBN: 978-1-906698-17-1

Dowding, C.V., Shore, R.F., Worgan, A., Baker, P.J., & Harris, S. 2010. Exposure of the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) to anticoagulant rodenticides. Environmental Pollution 158 161-166. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2009.07.017

Llabjani, V., Trevisan, J., Jones, K.C., Shore, R.F., & Martin, F.L., 2010. Binary mixture effects by PBDE congeners (47, 153, 183 or 209) and PCB congeners (126 or 153) in MCF-7 cells: biochemical alterations assessed by IR spectroscopy and multivariate analysis. Environmental Science & Technology 44 3992-3998

Walker, L.A., Llewellyn, N.R., Pereira M.G., Potter, E.D., Sainsbury, A.W. & Shore, R.F. 2010. Anticoagulant rodenticides in predatory birds 2009: a Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS) report. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Lancaster, UK. 17pp