swilso24@une.edu.eu
ANSTO Environmental Toxicology and Radioecology team; Tom Cresswell (tom.cresswell@ansto.gov.au)
Team members Tom Cresswell, Danielle Hill and Amy MacIntosh travelled to Oslo, Norway in September 2022 to attend the International Conference on Radioecology and Environmental Radioactivity (ICRER). Tom presented an overview of the management of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) during offshore oil and gas infrastructure decommissioning. His presentation highlighted the need for greater collaboration with radioecologists to provide increased certainty to risk assessments for decommissioning. Tom’s attendance at the conference was supported by the 2022 SPERA Malcolm Cooper Memorial Award. Danielle presented results from lab studies examining the bioaccumulation and retention of 134Cs and 85Sr from solution by Australian native tadpoles including the changes to the biodistribution of these radionuclides during metamorphosis. Amy presented the results of her recent paper (see below) on biota dose modelling of NORMs from subsea pipeline scale.
(From left) Amy, Danielle and Tom enjoying the face-to-face networking opportunities at the ICRER 2022 conference in Oslo, Norway.
Francesca Gissi recently joined the ANSTO Environment Research Theme group in an ongoing role as a Research Scientist – Geochemistry. Francesca will be continuing work on the Offshore Infrastructure Decommissioning Project, generating data to assess the risk of mercury to marine biota from this source. Francesca will also be working on the Sites and Soils Project generating a greater understanding of the fate of contaminants from legacy waste sites.
ANSTO Graduate Alexandra Boyd has commenced her third rotation as part of the Graduate Program and will spend 50% of her time with our team on the Offshore Infrastructure Decommissioning Project and 50% of her time with the leader of the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), Dr Jamie Schulz.
Amy has made progress with developing analytical methods to determine Ra, Th, Pb and Po in marine biota tissues with colleagues from ANSTO’s low level radiation monitoring team. Please contact Amy (amy.macintosh@hdr.mq.edu.au) if you would like to discuss these techniques further. Amy was invited to represent ANSTO and Australia (as a Member State of the International Atomic Energy Agency) at the Biennial Forum on NORM Management and Remediation, held in Vienna. She gave a presentation on the research and collaborations from our Offshore Decommissioning team. We hope to participate in future forums and conferences in this space where we can translate our research into decision-making and international binding policy for NORM management.
Amy and Tom were awarded a few days to visit the Australian Synchrotron located in Melbourne. They used the XFM beamline to investigate the radiological components of pipe scale through high-resolution elemental mapping and are gaining new insights into the incorporation of NORMs in barite scale (see below).
Elemental map of a cross section of barium (Ba) sulfate pipe scale using x-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) at the Australian Synchrotron. Impurities in strontium (Sr) growth within the barite matrix are clearly visible
Danielle recently returned from South Carolina in the USA, where she completed a six-month field study as part of her Fulbright Scholarship. Danielle was investigating the bioaccumulation of radionuclides and metals by juvenile amphibians in contaminated wetlands downstream of the Savannah River Site (see image). Watch this space for the publication from Danielle’s study!
Danielle Hill at the Savannah River site setting up chambers for juvenile amphibian exposure at a reference site.
Opportunities:
The group are keen to collaborate with other SETAC-AU members on novel studies assessing the risk of various forms of mercury and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) from subsea oil and gas pipelines to marine organisms. The team are having regular discussions with regulators of offshore oil and gas operations in Australia, who urgently need data on the potential effects of chronic exposure to low radiological doses (from NORMs) and mercury to marine organisms, especially benthic organisms. We have a range of projects available for Honours, Masters and PhD projects. Please contact Tom to discuss further.
New publications from the group:
CSIRO Environment, Lucas Heights, Contaminant Effects and Risk Assessment Team (Lisa Golding lisa.golding@csiro.au)
On 1 December 2022, CSIRO Land and Water business unit amalgamated with CSIRO Ocean and Atmosphere business unit to become the Environment business unit. The science continues as usual and the move will promote more internal collaboration as well as make life easier for external clients to access our expertise from one instead of two business units.
Lisa Golding had a week of fieldwork on Norfolk Island in August to assist the CSIRO groundwater team with collecting surface water and groundwater samples for determining potential inputs of contaminants into the Kingston Bay area. Lisa is also managing the Norfolk Island marine water quality monitoring program to develop site-specific guidelines that will protect the coral reef and marine ecosystem.
The last 6 months have been busy for Jenny Stauber, attending three international workshops (both virtually and face-to-face) now that international travel has resumed. In May, she was involved in a workshop to develop relevance and quality criteria for exposure datasets (CREED). While data quality criteria schemes exist for ecotoxicity data (e.g., ANZG, Klimisch, CRED) there is no current equivalent for exposure data. The outputs from the workshop will be published as 4 papers mid next year.
Jenny was also part of the steering committee organising and attending a SETAC workshop to incorporate climate change into ecological risk assessment in Oslo, Norway in June. The venue was Oscarsborg Fortress on a small island in the fjord just south of Oslo. The trip was only marred by a terrorist shooting one evening 100 m from her hotel in Oslo, and the fact that 10 of 20 participants (including Jenny) caught COVID, and with missed connections, made for a rough 40-h trip home.
Jenny’s trip to Annapolis, Washington DC in August was fortunately much less eventful. She presented at an invited workshop on climate change and risks for the metals industries, as part of her role on the International Metals Associations’ Ecotoxicity Technical Advisory Panel (ETAP). She also gave virtual presentations on her recent project on deep sea mine tailings placement, as part of the State Key Centre for Marine Pollution, City U Hong Kong’s Distinguished Lecture Series and also for EnviSMART, Melbourne in July.
Jenny was also able to celebrate her induction as a fellow into the Australian Academy of Science at an official in-person ceremony at the Shine Dome in Canberra after receiving confirmation of her acceptance in 2020.
Gwil Price, our PhD student who is working on our IZA funded zinc project, moved to Hobart to take up a part-time role with the Australian Antarctic Division. Gwil is currently at Casey Station in Antarctica (for the second time) over summer. See the photo - is this really work?
Jenny Stauber and participants of the SETAC workshop at the Oscarsborg Fortress, Norway
Gwil Price conducting fieldwork in Antarctica for the AAD
Jenny Stauber being officially inducted into the Australian Academy of Science
Collection of groundwater on Norfolk Island by the field team and part of the coral reef in Emily Bay
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England
Contacts Susan Wilson (swilso24@une.edu.au) or Matt Tighe (mtighe2@une.edu.au)
Recent Highlights:
Steven Doherty was awarded his PhD in July “Speciation, associations, and geochemical transformations of antimony and arsenic in a mine-contaminated freshwater system” and also received the Chancellors Medal. He has accepted a postdoc fellowship with Professor Ed Burton at Southern Cross University and we continue to collaborate.
Sue Wilson and PhD student Nicola Forster, working on microplastics in wilderness areas, were involved in the UNE partnership with NSW EPA to promote the single use plastics ban across the State. Check out their media interviews (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcRbYpPrtIc) and podcasts for mini-series Plastic: The Last Straw (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/plastic-the-last-straw/id1644643906
New publications from the group:
Check out our webpage at www.une.edu.au/pollutionscience, and follow us on Twitter at @UNEPollutionSci. We have new PhD opportunities, including scholarships. Contact Susan Wilson (swilso24@une.edu.au) or Matt Tighe (mtighe2@une.edu.au)
mikaela.nordborg@my.jcu.edu.au
The FNQ dry season has allowed some time to rest and regroup for the TropWATER team. Work has largely been directed at report writing and preparing for wet season fieldwork across a number of projects throughout north Queensland and the Northern Territory. Shelley and Sarah are working hard organising the upcoming 2023 SETAC-AU Conference that will be held in Townsville next year! Needless to say the social calendar is very well planned out already!
Our PhD student, Maddi McKenzie is continuing her research into the response of the Upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea sp.) to emerging contaminants. Maddi’s cultures are currently reproducing and providing her with adequate stocks of experimental subjects.
The ecotox team at AIMS is in the throws of coral spawning, so it's all hands on deck for the rest of the summer!
Some dry season fieldwork gems
AQUEST Research Group, School of Science, RMIT University – Monica Tewman (monica.tewman@rmit.edu.au). You can contact the AQUEST research group at http://rmit.edu.au/aquest or at AQUEST@rmit.edu.au
It’s been a great year, coming out of the COVID fog, with full steam ahead for projects. With field work occurring from the Goulburn River to Kyneton and interstate. Deploying passive samplers in challenging environments, bringing Litter Trackers to the Greater Geelong & Surf Coast, investigating point source and diffuse pollution. We have improved process efficiencies in our labs and have successfully supervised both Honours and PhD projects. Our A3P research partnership with Melbourne Water has been reviewed positively this year, with our projects showing research impact for the business. We were successful in receiving funding through the Port Phillip Bay Fund 2021-22 with a collaborative bid between RMIT- AQUEST and Deakin University. The project Establishing a baseline of Bay condition: pollutants and ecological indicators will look at pollutants and eDNA in sediments in Port Phillip Bay starting in early 2023. For more details see: https://www.marineandcoasts.vic.gov.au/grants/port-phillip-bay-fund
Hot off the press: we have had a major piece of pesticide sourcing work for Melbourne accepted for publication. The paper Sourcing urban pesticide pollution using constructed wetlands in Melbourne, Australia assessed associations between landuse, catchment imperviousness and pesticide occurrence in 111 constructed wetlands in Melbourne and informs monitoring programs (ensuring the pollutants present are being sampled for) and directs further research towards relevant pesticides that pose a potential threat to our receiving waters, while identifying major sources which can become the target of management actions.
In 2022 we have had a visiting academic from Southwest University (SWU), Chongqing, China join the group. Associate Professor, Yuanqin Zeng is working on methods to measure tyre and road wear particles and is with us until June 2023. We have also had two Honours Projects filling knowledge gaps in 2022. David Buckles and Hannah Faraone have recently handed in their thesis’ and given their final talks. David’s project “Assessing the toxicity of aluminium to aquatic plants and invertebrates” was based on elevated detection levels (exceeding guideline values) for aluminium in waterways across Melbourne Water’s Long Term Water Quality Monitoring network. The question was posed: Does this mean that the guidelines are too restrictive or that the current concentrations are causing environmental damage? Tests on two invertebrate and one aquatic plant showed that negative effects were detected at significantly higher concentrations than the current guidelines, suggesting that a re-evaluation of the current guideline value is warranted. Hannah’s thesis “The impact of pollution on biofilms, zooplankton, and macroinvertebrate communities in constructed stormwater wetlands (CSW)” addressed the gap in available information on impacts of pollution to macroinvertebrates, zooplankton and biofilms, investigating the relationships between these communities and pollutants in constructed stormwater wetlands. Her research found that these communities all show potential to be effective bioindicators of pollution in CSWs.
PhD Project Updates
While Pulasthi Serasinghe and Tanya Paige spend solid hours at the National Measuremetn Institute (NMI) on their projects, congratulations goes to Pulasthi who has published his first PhD paper (listed below). Tanya also has a paper on PFAS imminent. Madara Ranatunga, in her 3rd year, has been busy in the AQUEST lab assessing the impacts of bifenthrin on Growling Grass Frog tadpoles, whilst also getting her first paper on bifenthrin ready for re-submission. Our PhD starters from last year are all completing literature reviews and moving into the experimental phase of their projects, these include:
Recent publications from the group include: (lab affiliated members in bold)
See our website for more publications, technical reports and project information: http:rmit.edu.au/aquest
PHOTO 1: L -R: Dr Sara Long, Dr Kath Hassell, David Buckles, Hannah Faraone and Dr Jackie Myers. Sara, Dr Hung Vu &, Prof. Vin Pettigrove supervised David, while Kath, Jackie and Dr Claudette Kellar supervised Hannah.
PHOTO 2: Pulasthi Serasinghe and Tanya Paige at the NMI Research Day, Nov 2022.
PHOTO 3: Dr Sara Long and Dr Claudette Kellar with Madara Ranatunga discussing tadpole experiments in the lab.
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University – Professor Bob Wong (bob.wong@monash.edu, bobwonglab.org, @BBM_Wong)
Members of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group have been busy working on two ARC-funded projects investigating the impacts pharmaceutical pollution on the behaviour, ecology, and evolution of aquatic organisms. A notable highlight included a six week research stint in Sweden, where Prof Wong and two of his PhD students, Hung Tan and Jack Brand, completed experiments examining the relationship between pharmaceutical exposure, brain size, and behaviour in fish. The Swedish research was carried out in collaboration with Prof Niclas Kolm (Stockholm University) and Prof Tomas Brodin, Dr Jake Martin, and Dr Michael Bertram (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and involved work on guppies that had been selected for large and small brains as part of a long term experimental evolution study at Stockholm University. Towards the tail end of the trip, several other members of the Research Group arrived in Sweden to present their behavioural ecotoxicology work at the 19th International Society for Behavioural Ecology Congress in Stockholm. At the same conference, Prof Wong—in his role as the Chair of the 20th ISBE Congress—made a pitch to conference delegates to promote Melbourne as the host city and venue for the 2024 Congress.
The Behavioural Ecology Research Group has welcomed three new PhD students to the Group. Gabriel Melhado and Jack Manera will be investigating the impacts of psychoactive pollution on wildlife immune responses and cognition, while James Wiles will be looking at the movement of pharmaceutical pollutants through the environment. The Group also celebrated the achievements of two PhD students, Lucinda Aulsebrook and Jack Brand, who both submitted their theses over the past few weeks. More recently, the Research Group got together for their lab Christmas party, which also provided an opportunity to reflect on another successful year.
Recent relevant publications (lab affiliated members in bold; * denotes joint senior authors)
Aulsebrook, L.C., Wong, B.B.M.*, Hall, M.D.* In press. Can pharmaceutical pollution alter the spread of infectious disease? A case study using fluoxetine. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B.
Orford, J.T., Ozeki, S., Brand, J.A., Henry, J., Wlodkowic, D., Alton, L.A.*, Martin, J.M.*, Wong, B.B.M.* 2022. Effects of the agricultural pollutant 17β-trenbolone on morphology and behaviour of tadpoles (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis). Aquatic Toxicology. 251: 106289.
Iglesias-Carrasco, M., Wong, B.B.M., Jennions, M.D. 2022. In the shadows: wildlife behaviour in tree plantations. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 37: 838-850.
Photo 3: Postdocs Upama Aich and Giovanni Polverino busy at work in the lab.
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University – Dr Aaron Schultz (aaron.schultz@deakin.edu.au, @Dr_Nanotox)
There has been alot to celebrate in 2022 in the Schultz lab with the Oilers making it to the 21/22 Conference final in the NHL, the Pies falling agonisingly (1point) short of a grand final appearance against the Cats (2023 will be the Pies year) and the Socceroos progressing to the final 16 and putting up a great fight against Argentina in the World Cup (we won’t mention the cricket). Moving onto more important updates and research, members of the Schultz lab have enjoyed a very productive year doing what Matt Damon did so well in the movie The Martian by “sciencing the s@#t out of this” 2022! In the past 6-months two students successfully completed their PhD’s and so congratulations Dr Ayushi Priyam and Dr Shweta Gehlout. Ayushi and Shweta’s PhD projects investigated the environmental and human toxicity risks of iron-based and phosphorous-based nanofertilisers being developed for agriculture. PhD student Nishat Urmi recently completed her first sampling trip to Lake Colac with her project investigating the spatial and temporal levels of heavy metals and microplastics in the Lake. This is a collaborative project with Dr Ben Long (Federation Uni) and Barwon Water. The Schultz lab is also currently hosting two visiting PhD students, Ms Natasha Yadav and Mr Anurag Nath, from the TERI-Deakin Nanobiotechnology Centre (New Delhi, India). Anurag and Natasha are investigating the uptake and toxicity of a variety of nanomaterials to freshwater planaria. Finally, PhD student Mr Kamal Poudel has been investigating the toxicity risks of micro and nanoplastics to human health, and Mr Samuel Eke recently commenced his PhD and is developing new methods for creating secondary microplastics that can be used in ecotoxicity testing. The group is looking forward to another fun and exciting year in the lab and field in 2023 and we wish everyone reading this a Merry Christmas and Happy New year!
Find out more about Nishat’s PhD research from her recent interview in the Colac Herald: https://colacherald.com.au/2022/12/scientists-drilling-down-on-lake-colacs-pollution
Recent publications from the group include:
Priyam, A., Singh, P.P., Afonso, L.O.B., and Schultz, A.G. (2022) Exposure to biogenic phosphorus nano-agromaterials promotes early hatching and causes no acute toxicity in zebrafish embryos. Environ. Sci.: Nano, 2022,9, 1364-1380.
Priyam, A., Singh, P.P., Afonso, L.O.B., and Schultz, A.G. (2022) Abiotic factors and aging alter the physicochemical characteristics and toxicity of Phosphorus nanomaterials to zebrafish embryos. NanoImpact, 25 (2022), p. 100387.
Photo: Aaron Schultz (left) and Nishat Urmi (right) enjoying some sunny weather while collecting samples at Lake Colac.
The Centre for Anthropogenic Pollution Impact and Management (CAPIM), Melbourne University – Assoc. Prof. Suzie Reichman (suzie.reichman@unimelb.edu.au).
The Centre for Anthropogenic Pollution Impact and Management (CAPIM) is an interdisciplinary research centre based at the University of Melbourne. We collaborate with our partners to ensure both research excellence and real-world impact. Our interdisciplinary research concentrates on the identification of pollution in the environment – in water, soil, air and waste – and impact assessments and management strategies for human health and ecological sustainability.
Our expertise includes:
CAPIM recently hosted a Pollution Research Showcase. The event opened with a plenary address from EPA Victoria’s Chief Scientist, Mark Taylor, followed by a showcase of CAPIM research initiatives, demonstrating the breadth and capacity of CAPIM pollution research. CAPIM research delivers evidence-based outcomes that support government, industry and the community to determine risks, make decisions and more safely manage pollution – spanning human health, air, water, soil and environmental pollution.
Coming up …..the CAPIM Pollution Event Series is due for launch later in the year – a series of online topic-based panel sessions.
For more information contact us at capim-info@unimelb.edu.au or visit www.capim.unimelb.edu.au
Claudia.Tanneberger@dcceew.gov.au
Water and Sediment Quality team, ERISS
The water and sediment quality team members at ERISS have been kept on their toes this year. Earlier in the year, Claudia Tanneberger, Andrew Harford and other team members completed the annual surface water and macrofauna sampling of four creeks surrounding Ranger Uranium Mine. Due to heavy rainfall mid sampling period, the duration of the field campaign was extended as the water needed to be below a certain level before it was safe to put the croc nets up.
Being croc safe is most important when working in waters here in the NT.
Sorting water bugs
The creek sampling was closely followed by billabong monitoring using fish videography. The team also looks more into DNA-based monitoring tools these days.
Claudia Tanneberger has conducted a whole heap of lab experiments for her Masters by Research looking at using DGT to measure uranium, and found an interesting phenomenon that occurs when DGTs are deployed in the very soft water that we have up here in Kakadu. She noticed an overestimation of uranium concentration, which is decreasing with increasing ionic strength, and she’s currently gathering more data to find out which part of the DGT exactly is causing the overestimation.
Claudia’s DGT test set up
The WASQ field team also put new bores into the creek bed and sampled the ground water from certain sites. We have done this previously but this year we went down to 8 metres for the first time. The data we obtained helps us understand geochemical processes that occur along the Ranger uranium mine.
Congratulations to our valued team member Tom Mooney for publishing his work. His study assessed the toxicity of magnesium to macroinvertebrate assemblages across different hydrographic phases in a seasonally flowing stream. Read here for more information.
And finally, SETAC member Gisi Lamche joined our SSB supervision and monitoring team and started off with an exciting field trip to collect mussels for PFAS analysis. She will be doing investigative and assessment tasks around the mine and we are very happy to have her onboard.
Raking the billabong bed for mussels