Lisa Golding (lisa.golding@csiro.au)
Despite the COVID lockdowns and lab shutdowns, the team at Lucas Heights has been getting down to business. Lisa Golding presented key messages on behalf of the Geological and Bioregional Assessments (GBA) team (Jason Kirby, Simon Apte, Dirk Mallants, Mike Williams) on the chemical risk assessment, water quality monitoring, direct toxicity assessment and contaminant groundwater modelling of shale gas flowback wastewaters as part of the GBA roadshow. Publications are in the flowback pipeline so look out for these!
During lockdown, David Spadaro was lead author on a risk assessment paper entitled ‘Probabilistic risk assessment of mine-derived copper in the Ok Tedi/Fly River, Papua New Guinea’ that has been accepted and is in pre-proof online view with Science of the Total Environment https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151219. The manuscript uses 10 years of monitoring toxicity and chemistry data to assess the risk of chronic effects to the aquatic ecosystem in four spatial regions of the river system.
Returning to the lab after lockdown, there was a large back-log of samples to analyse from projects such as the Barrow Island Stygofauna project, Ok Tedi and Gove Harbour sediment. The latter required a field trip to Bonnet Bay to collect control sediments with David’s helper Stuart Simpson (see photo below). There was also a lot of lab organisms that required some extra attention post lock-down.
Stuart Simpson (Left) and David Spadaro (right) enjoying field work at Bonnet Bay post COVID lockdown
Our Deep-Sea Tailings Placement (DSTP) risk assessment framework project, led by Jenny Stauber and funded by the Metals Environmental Research Associations (MERA), is now complete. Both the final report and presentations were well received by our international stakeholders. Causal pathways for different pelagic and benthic zones, stressors, processes and receptors were consolidated into causal networks and then scored for risk and confidence. The framework will assist decision makers to better understand the likelihood, severity, spatial extent and duration of impacts associated with exposure to mine tailings in the marine environment. Jenny has also just completed her role on an external review panel chaired by Mary O’Kane assessing the quality and relevance of research in the Australian Antarctic Division’s (AAD) Science Branch. The panel’s report has just been publicly released and will hopefully enable a strong future for Australia’s Antarctic Science Program.
Our PhD students Sarah Stone and Gwil Price are getting close to finishing their theses and are in paper publication overdrive. Sarah has had a publication accepted with ET&C entitled “Pulse-exposure toxicity of ammonia and propoxur to the tropical copepod Acartia sinjiensis”. Sarah will be balancing finishing her PhD with her new role as Senior Science Projects Officer within the Chemicals Management Branch within the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment with Glen Walker. She will be working on two broad projects related to the prioritisation and informed substitution of industrial chemicals. This ranking of chemicals should provide industry and consumers with a resource to rapidly identify chemicals of concern and chemicals of low concern regarding human health and environmental risks. Gwil has written several papers including for ET&C (https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5177) on the effects of water chemistry parameters on zinc bioavailability and toxicity to freshwater algae, and has developed several Zn multiple linear regression models that will help ensure that our water quality guidelines will be bioavailability-based in future. The work is part of a larger program funded by the International Zinc Association (IZA). Gwil was also successful in being awarded a grant through the Australian Wildlife Society and UTS called the Wildlife Ecology Research Scholarship to study the influence of zinc on the microalgae proteome and metabolome.
In addition to his own PhD research Gwil, Jenny Stauber, Dianne Jolley and Aleicia Holland have co-supervised Anthony Evans (La Trobe University) in his honours research entitled “Application of bioavailability models to predict the toxicity of zinc to the cladoceran Ceriodaphnia dubia in Australian natural waters”. Anthony managed to complete his practical laboratory work in Sydney before a midnight dash for the NSW/Victorian border to avoid the Sydney COVID lockdown and was just in time for the Melbourne COVID lockdown. Congratulations to Anthony for submitting his honours thesis in time for the end of lockdown! He is enjoying a break before he starts a full-time job in Melbourne next year.
Tom Cresswell (tom.cresswell@ansto.gov.au)
The team were well represented at the recent Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Australasia (SETAC AU) conference with Amy MacIntosh presenting on the bioavailability of petroleum scale associated contaminants to juvenile tiger prawns; Danielle Hill presenting a review on the fate and sublethal effects of metals during amphibian metamorphosis; Sarah McDonald presenting on experimental design and statistical analysis in aquatic live animal radiotracing studies and urban stormwater runoff: metal forms and dynamics in a polluted urban creek system in Melbourne, Australia; and Tom Cresswell presenting on biomonitoring for dissolved metals and why you shouldn’t use gobies! Even though the meeting was completely virtual, there were some great opportunities for networking and all the presentations of the current state of the science were great.
Lab work continues to be delayed at ANSTO due to COVID lockdowns so the team are maintaining regular virtual meetings and looking into desktop-based opportunities to conduct modelling exercises. These include using the radiological dose modelling software ERICA Tool to predict doses from NORM scale to marine biota under a range of subsea pipeline decommissioning scenarios led by Amy MacIntosh and using a numerical model to predict the potential for marine sediment to methylate mercury, adapted to tropical Australian conditions led by Francesca Gissi. Danielle Hill is looking into combining the ERICA Tool with metal bioaccumulation models to predict the efficacy of different remediation options for radionuclide and metal impacted freshwater wetlands.
The team would like to congratulate Sarah McDonald for submitting her PhD thesis with the University of Melbourne and for securing a position in early 2022 with the TropWater Centre at James Cook University in Townsville, QLD. Sarah put a huge amount of effort into her PhD and has produced a series of great publications in high impact journals as a result.
New publications from the group:
Cresswell, T., Brown, S., Wong, H. and Apte, S. (2021). Assessing the impacts of scale residues from offshore oil and gas decommissioning on marine organisms. The APPEA Journal; 61(2): 379-383 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ20024.
MacIntosh, A., Dafforn, K., Penrose, B., Chariton, A. and Cresswell, T. (2021). Ecotoxicological effects of decommissioning offshore petroleum infrastructure: A systematic review. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology: 1-39 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2021.1917949.
McDonald, S., Cresswell, T., Hassell, K. and Keough, M. (2021). Experimental design and statistical analysis in aquatic live animal radiotracing studies: A systematic review. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology: 1-30 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2021.1899551.
Susan Wilson (swilso24@une.edu.au); Matt Tighe (mtighe2@une.edu.au)
Since our posting to Endpoint last year the HDR students have shown fantastic resilience and perseverance in the still restricted circumstances. Sajanee Gunadasa was awarded her PhD on “Arsenic and cadmium co-contamination in agronomic soils: Risks and options for management” and she received the Chancellors medal. Her fieldwork paper in Exposure and Health was featured on Sri Lankan TV where exposure to As and Cd are thought to be possible contributors to chronic kidney disease in rural populations. Atefeh Esmaeili received her PhD on “Advancing the prediction of PAH bioaccumulation in earthworms and plants for historically contaminated soils using chemical in-vitro methodologies”, and also Roozbeh Ravansari on “Augmented Portable X-ray Fluorescence Technology for Application to Soils: Towards Modular Soil-Specific pXRF Instrumentation for SOC Quantification”, with Masters student Manuel de Simas also completing successfully. Some of the papers are published, others soon to come out!
Steven Doherty, finished his APR Intern with the Legacy Mines division of Department of Regional NSW understanding diffuse and point sources of metalloid contamination in Bakers Creek, worked through data from two grants at the Australian Synchrotron and is now writing up his PhD. Carolyn Sonter continued her work on PFAS effects on honey bee colonies and gave a well-received presentation at the fantastic SETAC-AU conference. Nicola Forster’s work on microplastics on recreational trails was also presented at SETAC-AU and is receiving good media coverage. She was pleased to receive the inaugural SETAC Asia Pacific student research grant. Other group members include Kirsten Hawking investigating glyphosate in high conservation soils and postdoc Martin Brummel working on sub-lethal pesticide impacts on pollinator foraging and nesting behaviour. It’s also been great to welcome Manisha Shakya from La Trobe into the UNE Aquatic Ecology Group to collaborate with Pollution Science.
Sue has taken up the role as senior editor with IEAM and presented in the EnviSmart Series on the group’s work on As and Sb in the Macleay River, and Matt has become an editor-in-chief with Geoderma. It’s been a busy year!
Contact us if you want to chat about any of our projects. You can also check out our webpage and follow us on Twitter at @UNEPollutionSci.
We have new PhD opportunities in a number of areas, including scholarships available for domestic students. Contact Sue or Matt for additional information.
Farzana Kastury recently received two grants – an Early Career Research Grant from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) and an AMP Tomorrow Foundation grant – to start a new project on soil remediation from January next year. The project will involve conducting a pilot trial under field conditions to assess long term plumbojarosite stability in contaminated soils with the aim of reducing childhood lead exposure.
Mike McLaughlin and Shervin Kabiri from the University of Adelaide along with Rai Kookana and Divina Navarro from CSIRO recently commenced a project examining novel techniques to assess the leaching and mobility of per- and polyfluorinated akyl substances (PFAS) in impacted soils and construction media. The project is supported by the US DoD’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program and involves collaborators from Texas Tech University, Vanderbilt University and CDM Smith.
In other news from the University of Adelaide, honours student Carly Monaghan recently completed her thesis at on the remediation of cationic and zwitterionic PFAS in contaminated soils.
Rai Kookana was part of a global collaborative effort funded by IUPAC towards developing a comprehensive framework for assessing human health risks associated with nanopesticides. An article describing the proposed framework was published open access in Nature Nanotechnology and can be accessed here.
Dr Rai Kookana was awarded the CSIRO Lifetime Achievement Medal by the CEO of CSIRO Dr Larry Marshal on 29 November 2021 for ‘pioneering new areas of science which provide the foundation for CSIRO’s research platforms on emerging chemicals of concern for environmental protection in Australia and globally’.
This award recognises individuals with a record of sustained and meritorious achievements in science, technology, and innovation.
Heartfelt congratulations to Rai from the SETAC SA regional contingent on this award recognising his many achievements and contributions to environmental science through his work at CSIRO.
First of all I’d like to give thanks to Jason Dunlop, on behalf of all Queensland SETAC-AU members, for all his work as the interim QLD representative, including organising a conference dinner event for our south-eastern members!
I’d also like to introduce myself as the new Queensland regional representative on the SETAC-AU council. My name is Mikaela Nordborg and I am an AIMS@JCU PhD candidate with James Cook University and the Australian institute of Marine Science in Townsville. I am currently in the final weeks of completing my PhD thesis on the effects of tropical environmental conditions on petroleum oil toxicity towards corals. I am looking forward to continuing my research career in Australia (and maybe having a week or two to catch up on sleep post-submission) and contributing more directly to the work of SETAC-AU as the QLD rep!
I’d like to congratulate the committee and organisers of the 2021 SETAC-AU conference for a highly successful and engaging event, and commend them for their dedication and resilience in delivering a high quality program despite having to transition the conference to online-only such a short time before the event. We saw a great selection of presentations from the QLD membership so I’d strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of the archived talks and watch them if you missed any during the conference!
Although COVID restrictions limited travel and social events across much of the country, we were fortunate to be able to meet for dinner with other QLD SETAC members during the conference. There was a great turn out with 29 Qld SETACers meeting for dinner at a Turkish restaurant in Southbank (Brisbane), with some additional members from Townsville who met up for drinks and dinner in the tropical north. It was great to be able to attend a social get together, though we all felt slightly guilty as most people in other parts of the country were unable to do so. Thanks to all who attended and we can’t wait for the next conference and seeing everyone in person again (although catching up in the spatial chat was very enjoyable)!
SE QLD SETAC-AU conference dinner
NE QLD SETAC-AU conference drinks
Dr Shelley Templeman
With the impending threat of the wet season moving in over the next couple of months, focus in our group at TropWATER (JCU) has largely been directed at finalising dry season fieldwork across a number of projects and close off of a number of programs for 2021. There have been 3–4 field trips for dry season environmental monitoring across north Queensland and the Northern Territory, with another couple on the horizon before the end of November. Coupled with this, are a number of reports with November & December deadlines so juggling deadlines is tight. As such, much of the ecotoxicology program has been shifted to a care and maintenance process for the rest of the year. 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. Much of her time is focussed on optimising some of her methods to automate where appropriate and establish appropriate QA/QC for some of the experimental procedures. In conjunction with this, we are pleased to see our most recent review: “The utility of jellyfish as marine biomonitors” has just been published in Marine Pollution Bulletin (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21010900). Looking to 2022, we are excited that the impending opening up of borders means our new post-doc, Sarah McDonald can join us in January!
We would like to congratulate Marina Santana on submitting her PhD thesis on the Presence, abundance and effects of microplastics on the Great Barrier Reef! Marina is continuing her work in the Microplastics group for another year and is a part of the team currently performing field- and experimental work at the Lizard Island Research Station, on the northern Great Barrier Reef. The team aims to increase our understanding of the susceptibility of sensitive larval life stages of common reef fishes to microplastic uptake and impacts, and their potential implications for maintaining healthy fish populations.
The team also wants to congratulate Joan Li and Vilde Snekkevik for completing their respective MSc degrees through James Cook University, including their research projects on Microplastic extraction from prawn digestive tracts and The effects of microplastics and elevated temperature on aggressive behaviour in the spiny chromis. Finally, we want to give a huge thank you and farewell to our post-doc Dr Amanda Dawson who is just wrapping up her project here at AIMS. Dr Dawson is a Churchill Fellow, as well as a winner of the QLD Women in STEM Prize, who is now looking for new research opportunities in the Brisbane/SE QLD area and we wish her all the best on her continued research journey!
Current microplastics research at Lizard Island
Recent publications:
Miller, M., Menéndez, P., Motti, C., Kroon, F., 2021. Efficacy of microplastic separation techniques on seawater samples: Testing accuracy using high-density polyethylene. Biological Bulletin 240, 52–66 (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/710755).
Santana, M.F.M., Dawson, A.L., Motti, C.A., van Herwerden, L., Lefevre, C., Kroon, F.J., 2021. Ingestion and Depuration of Microplastics by a Planktivorous Coral Reef Fish, Pomacentrus amboinensis. Frontiers in Environmental Science 9 (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.641135/full).
Dawson, A.L., Santana, M.F.M., Miller, M.E., Kroon, F.J., 2021. Relevance and reliability of evidence for microplastic contamination in seafood: A critical review using Australian consumption patterns as a case study. Environ Pollut 276, 116684 8 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749121002621).
Best wishes for the Holiday season from QLD & we are all looking forward to a safe & happy 2022!
The water and sediment quality team at eriss have just completed some very hot, sweaty and dusty fieldwork sampling deep bores in the creek bed of Magela Creek. This work leads on from some interesting data that Lisa Chandler collected during her PhD. They have also been very busy setting up and refining protocols in the omics lab to develop DNA based biological monitoring tools to assist with routine monitoring of Ranger Uranium Mine and surrounds.
The very dusty face of Claudia after driving to one of the field sites (left). Fieldsite set up - sun safety first! (right)
Claudia Tanneberger has finished her literature review for her masters project exploring DGTs as an advanced biomonitoring tool and is currently in the process of publishing a paper that summarises the findings of her lit review. Watch this space! She has started a few experiments in the lab to verify DGT performance. Her first results indicate that the binding layers she chose bound uranium well and that the bound uranium was eluted effectively from the resin with her elution technique.
DGTs set up for a U accumulation over time experiment
Six months of settle in for Professor Nicole Webster, the new AAD Chief Scientist. This period has included the AAD Science Branch undergoing an external review process, for which we now have a set of 11 recommendations to work towards over the next 6 months. This is an exciting time of change for the AAD, which should see us with science at the core of the AADs’ activities, a more strategic research focus for science into the future, and greater support mechanisms for HRD students and early career researchers. Along with a more strategic focus for the branch, we recently welcomed our new icebreaker/resupply vessel/research platform, the Nuyina! This vessel is a real game changer for the Australian Antarctic research program, and represents a huge capability leap for marine science and atmospheric research in the Southern Ocean.
The icebreaker, RSV Nuyina
Meanwhile in the laboratories… With Kath finishing up the final lab experiments in a body of work assessing toxicity of diesel-spiked soils as they age and degrade, using the nematode Plectus murrayi, this work is now being prepared for publication. Working with degrading fuel products has been challenging, but we now have our first sensitivity estimates for fuel contaminated soils from this important Antarctic species.
Bianca Sfiligoj has been working with the same nematode species to derive sensitivity estimates for ammonia. Pilot tests indicate sensitivity is relatively high – these data will help inform our decisions around remediation techniques and soil reuse at our Antarctic stations.
Lisa Meyer has made great headway in developing a GIS product that captures the history of contamination at Mawson station. We are preparing for a field season at Mawson next summer and are in the thick of pre-positioning cargo this summer in anticipation we’ll get a field team in next summer to do a full site risk assessment. The scope of the work includes both a marine and terrestrial assessment, including spatially georeferenced chemical sampling along with aerial drone and marine remotely operated vehicle imagery. This site assessment will form the first phase of a much larger flagship project we have planned for the coming years that aims to address contamination at all contaminated sites within Australian Antarctic Territory.
On the student front, we welcome Melanie Borup who has just commence a PhD with UTAS and the AAD. Early stages yet in her project development, but her research will investigate drivers of change in Antarctic microinvetebrate communities. At CAPIM at the University of Melbourne, the development of toxicity tests using Antarctic microinvertebrate species has been progressing well in with our collaborators PhD student Jordan McCarthy and Masters student Katie Plaisted busy testing the sensitivities of rotifers and tardigrades to metals.
From us here in Tasmania, we wish you all the best for the festive season and a safe and productive 2022.
Monica Tewman (monica.tewman@rmit.edu.au)
Who would have thought that we’d have two years in row like these ones! We’re all getting so good at working from home and attending conferences virtually, rushing into the lab and office at the first opportunity! Our laboratory technical team really shined with Hung Vu, Milanga Walpitagama, Rebecca Reid, and James Oliver receiving the RMIT STEM College Team Award! Keeping our ecotoxicology labs maintained, running toxicity tests & preparing over 700 passive samplers for deployment as we moved in and out of lockdowns! Well done!
We were so proud to be hosting SETAC AU conference this year and got so close to it being in person! Lead by Kath Hassell and Vin Pettigrove with a host of AQUEST members on the organising committee, thanks to ASN Events and Annabelle- fantastic! We had record numbers of attendees and a high satisfaction rate and interest in our art spin off.
As a part of our partnership with Melbourne Water (A3P) we’ve been presenting on our research that directly feeds into the Healthy Waterways Strategy (HWS) and will continue to influence the direction of this strategy as the mid term review unfolds in 2022. The forum was split over four weeks with AQUEST researchers presenting seven talks across Pollutants of concern, where we find them, what land use they are associated with, their impact on HWS values and new methods for detecting and quantifying impact; Stormwater wetland performance; How are we protecting areas of biodiversity; Alternative practices for vegetation management (glyphosate); Improving methods for monitoring and managing litter; and Looking at the major pollution issues for the Bays. These will be available in the new year on the Melbourne Water Healthy Waterways Strategy site and on the Aquest You Tube channel.
Dr. Claudette Kellar as part of our involvement with the long running Enhancing Our Dandenong Creek Project has been busy leading educational sessions in local schools talking about pollution prevention, with this program continuing into 2022 (See picture).
We have had several students complete their studies with us, Ashley Clifford completed his Honours investigating the Impacts of pesticides on Victorian frogs as well as various Master of Biotechnology students (research and coursework program) that due to covid restrictions completed their research projects as literature reviews on pesticides, monitoring with macrophytes, the relationship between algae and macroinvertebrates and impacts of pollution. Two of our Master’s by Research students, Pulasthi Serasinghe and Tanya Paige, have both converted their projects to PhDs. Focused in the field of analytical and environmental chemistry, Pulasthi is looking at the identification and detection of emerging pesticides of concern to aquatic ecosystems, while Tanya’s research is looking at the qualification and quantification of emerging organic contaminants including PFAS and personal care products in aquatic environments. We have also had many PhD commencements this year including:
Recent publications from the group include:
Hao Shen, Damien Nzabanita, Stephen Grist, Ana Miranda, Sara M. Long, Dayanthi Nugegoda (2022). Trends in bioaccumulation and metabolite profiles in Mediterranean mussels with sub lethal exposure to mixtures of trace metals. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, 10: 106825. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2021.106825
Maita Subba, Michael J. Keough, Claudette Kellar, Sara Long, Ana Miranda, Vincent J Pettigrove (2021). Potamopyrgus antipodarum has the potential to detect effects from various land use activities on a freshwater ecosystem. Environmental Pollution, 117653. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117563.
Hammer, M. P., Adams, M., Unmack, P. J., Hassell, K. L., Bertozzi, T. (2021) Surprising Pseudogobius: Molecular systematics of benthic gobies reveals new insights into estuarine biodiversity (Teleostei: Gobiiformes). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 160, July 2021, 107140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107140
McDonald, S., Cresswell, T., Hassell, K., Keough, M. (2021) Experimental design and statistical analysis in aquatic live animal radiotracing studies: A systematic review. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. doi.org/10.1080/10643389.2021.1899551
McDonald, S. Hassell, K. L., Cresswell, T. (2021) Effect of short-term dietary exposure on metal assimilation and metallothionein induction in the estuarine fish Pseudogobius sp. Science of The Total Environment, Volume 772, 10 June 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145042
D. Nugegoda: Kibria G. et al (2021) Pollution: Risks, Impacts and Management. Social and Environmental Perspectives. Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur, India ISBN: 9789389184969
Thia, D.D., Miranda, A., Trestrail, C., De Souza, H., Dinh, K.V., Nugegoda, D. (2021) Antagonistic effects of copper and microplastics in single and binary mixtures on development and reproduction in the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia carinata Environmental Technology & Innovation, 24, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eti.2021.102045
Shen, H., and Nugegoda, D. (2022) Real-time automated behavioural monitoring of mussels during contaminant exposures using an improved microcontroller-based device. Science of The Total Environment, Volume 806, Part 1, 1 February 2022, 150567. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150567
Dr Claudette Kellar teching primary school students about macroinvertebrates and their use as ecological indicators of waterway health
Professor Bob Wong (bob.wong@monsh.edu.au)
Despite the impacts of COVID- restrictions, the Behavioural Ecology Research Group has kept busy with several long-term research projects over the past six months. This includes several student-led experiments examining how aquatic contamination by chemical pollutants, both in isolation and in combination with other environmental stressors, affect the behaviour, physiology and life history of exposed wildlife. PhD student Jack Orford and Honours student Siobhan Roberts, for example, recently completed experiments investigating the carry over effects of an androgenic endocrine disruptor and UV-B on newly metamorphosed froglets. In collaboration with A/Prof Theresa Jones (University of Melbourne), PhD student Nik Wilmott has been examining the impacts of pesticides and light pollution on the development and behavioural performance of spiders. Working with PhD student Jason Henry and A/Prof Donald Wlodkowic (RMIT University), members of our Group have also been examining the effects of multigenerational fluoxetine exposure on the morphology, reproductive output and behaviour of aquatic snails. Finally, PhD student Hung Tan recently completed experiments exploring how fluoxetine affects circadian rhythms and sleep in fish (in collaboration with A/Prof John Lesku, Latrobe University).
At the recent Australasian Evolution Society Conference, research associate Dr Jake Martin was awarded a prize for his talk on the long-term effects of fluoxetine on pre- and post-copulatory mechanisms of sexual selection.
Projects planned for the Summer include experiments investigating the transgenerational impacts of pharmaceutical pollution on cognition, learning and reproductive behaviours in fish. Several new students are also due to start their PhD projects in the new year.
Recent relevant publications (lab affiliated members in bold)
Bertram, M.G., Martin, J.M., Wong, B.B.M., Brodin, T. In press. Micropollutants. Current Biology.
Martin, J.M., Bertram, M.G., Blanchfield, P.J., Brand, J.A., Brodin, T., Brooks, B.W., Cerveny, D., Lagisz, M., Ligocki, I.Y., Michelangeli, M., Nakagawa, S., Orford, J.T., Sundin, J., Tan, H., Wong, B.B.M., McCallum, E. 2021. Evidence of the impacts of pharmaceuticals on aquatic animal behaviour: a systematic map protocol. Environmental Evidence 10: 26.
Mason, R.T., Martin, J.M., Tan, H., Brand, J., Bertram, M.G., Tingley, R., Todd-Weckmann, A., Wong, B.B.M. 2021. Context is key: social environment mediates the impacts of a psychoactive pollutant on shoaling behaviour in fish. Environmental Science and Technology 55: 13024-13032.
Members of the research group at the recent Lab Christmas Party