SETAC AU and ACEDD are pleased to announce Gina Mondschein (RMIT) and Jessica Kneebone (University of Tasmania) as the joint 2024 Peter Teasdale Memorial Award winners.
Gina’s research aims to understand how long-term exposure to pollution affects aquatic ecosystems. Trace to high levels of contaminants are routinely detected in waterways globally. This research will use native shrimp (Family: Atyidae) as a proxy for ecosystem health due to their extensive distribution, broad diet, and importance as a food source for native vertebrates such as fish, turtles and platypus. Modelled data has been used to predict chronic toxicity to individual contaminants, however the sub-lethal effects are not yet understood. Gina’s research will be the first to experimentally test the sub-lethal effects of chronic exposure to environmentally-relevant concentrations of multiple contaminants on shrimp.
The award’s funding will be used to support a series of long-term laboratory and in-situ exposures. Species from two genera of native shrimp (Paratya australiensis and Caridina mccullochi) and multiple populations of P. australiensis will be used to test for genus- and population-level variation in sensitivity to pollution. Identifying population and genus-level resistance to pollution could be key in preventing local population extinction and maintaining ecosystem health and biodiversity. Gina's research is expected to provide insight into the sub-lethal effects of aquatic pollution and to inform management decisions regarding the release of recycled water and wastewater into aquatic ecosystems.