Jason Van De Merwe South QLD Regional Representative
mikaela.nordborg@my.jcu.edu.au j.vandemerwe@griffith.edu.au
CSIRO and the Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI)
Led by David Beale and Suzanne Vardy, a recent ground-breaking new study has measured concentrations of PFAS - also known as ‘forever chemicals’ - in Australian wildlife, following an analysis of freshwater turtle (Emydura macquarii macquarii) populations in Queensland. The joint study by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and the Queensland Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI), discovered biochemical changes to adult turtles and their hatchlings, and observed population decline. The research made use of omics-based tools, which are advanced techniques used to assess thousands of molecules within an organism to find out how it has responded to a contaminant or disease.
CSIRO and DETSI uncover health impacts of ‘forever chemicals’ on freshwater turtles
ARITOX Research Group, Griffith University
The ARI-TOX Research Group at Griffith University has had another busy year. Frederic Leusch, Jason van de Merwe, Peta Neale, Kimberly Finlayson and Matt Johnson finalised the ARC Linkage ‘Saving Nemo’ project, where they have developed a suite of cell-based bioassays for more ethical and high throughput assessments of the environmental impacts of wastewater discharges. Jason van de Merwe and Kimberly Finlayson have also been applying their marine turtle cell-based toxicity bioassays to assessing sea turtle health in Hervey Bay, in collaboration with Sea World and the Queensland Department of Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation in response to the major flooding event at the beginning of 2022.
Shima Ziajahromi has been sweeping the awards (see photos below), being named Queensland’s Young Tall Poppy in August, and receiving the Griffith University VC Research Excellence Award (ECR) in November. Shima was also recently awarded a Thomas Davis Research Grant for Marine, Soil and Plant Biology (Australia Academy of Science) for the project: ‘Fate and behaviour of biosolid-derived microplastics in Australian agricultural soils: Lab-scale experiments and Field evidence’. In addition, Chantal Lanctot was recently awarded an Australian Research Council Early Career Industry Fellowship for her project: Determining the Ecological Impacts of Bushfire Fighting Chemicals'.
A group of ARI-TOX researchers attended the What’s in Our Water Symposium in Canberra at the end of October (see photos below). Matt Johnson and Sana Ajaz were awarded the ‘Best Snapshot Presentation Student’ - Winner & Runner up prizes, respectively.
TropWATER Ecotox team at JCU
No rest for the wicked up north! Work during the second half of this year has been geared towards dry season REMP sampling at three of our four sites and assisting other TropWATER projects where needed.
Shelley Templeman has been busy running her aquatic environmental monitoring skills short course for local groups in Townsville and Rockhampton. She was also invited by Jules to give a lecture at ANU alongside other notable SETACers.
As a team we have been working alongside our clients to understand the major challenges currently faced by the mining industry in applying the water quality guidelines to ephemeral/temporary systems. We are currently looking at developing a project with industry stakeholders and other research groups in Northern Australia to develop water quality frameworks that are more relevant to the wet/dry Tropics. Part of this involves a pilot study we hope to have underway early next year incorporating our macroinvertebrate sampling and the TropWATER eDNA capabilities to undertake comprehensive environmental monitoring.
Shelley, Chris and Sarah presenting a poster at the Trailblazer forum.
In the field Sarah McDonald has been keeping busy undertaking dry season fieldwork before the big rains hit. Sarah visited a local school in Tully NQ alongside Terrian NRM and Mamu Rangers to co-run a Guardians of the Reef program as part of National Science Week. She took year 5 and 6 students on a field trip to conduct water quality and macroinvertebrate assessments – the kids had a great time and loved looking at all the bugs under the microscope. Recently Sarah returned from Canberra after attending the AUSRIVAS course run at the University of Canberra. She plans to work alongside our resident macroinvertebrate taxonomist Julie Hanley to get her taxa identification up to scratch before going for her taxonomy accreditation.
Science Week in Tully
Sarah attending the fieldwork components of the AUSRIVAS course in Canberra.
ANSTO Environmental Toxicology and Radioecology team; Tom Cresswell
(Contact: Tom.Cresswell@ansto.gov.au)
Tom Cresswell recently attended the NORM Global conference in Denver, Colorado to discuss the team’s research into the characterisation and risk assessment of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in offshore oil and gas infrastructure decommissioning. Tom has also been working with Dr Darren Koppel from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) to develop an assessment framework for NORM and mercury in subsea petroleum pipelines to assist with decommissioning planning. The framework is nearly complete and we are hoping to finalise the documentation in February 2025.
Alexandra Boyd visited the National Sea Simulator twice this year to work with Dr Darren Koppel from AIMS to undertake a 28 day sediment bioaccumulation test, which aimed to determine the bioavailability and potential effects of NORM within sediments. Darren visited ANSTO Lucas Heights in October to commence the long process of radiochemical analysis to determine tissue and sediment NORM concentrations from the experiment. Learn more about this world-leading research from Darren here. Ali has also supported a number of student research projects, contributed to commercial work and is leading ANSTO’s continuation of sediment toxicity testing following CSIRO’s departure from the Lucas Heights campus.
Elisabeth Tondl has synthesised metacinnabar (β-HgS) from HgCl2 using radioactive mercury-203 (203Hg) which is produced by ANSTO’s OPAL nuclear reactor. Elisabeth will then lead a series of experiments using the radiotracer β-[203Hg]HgS to determine the solubility of metacinnabar under simulated Australian offshore conditions as part of the data required for assessing the risk to the environment of mercury from offshore infrastructure decommissioning. Elisabeth plans to present this research at the upcoming SETAC Europe conference in Vienna, Austria in May 2025.
Danielle Hill (Griffith Uni PhD candidate) is juggling completing her manuscripts from her PhD with near full-time work for NSW DCCEEW and is progressing well.
Amy MacIntosh graduated from her PhD in October 2024 and has taken up a position as Technical Support officer for the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).
Caitlin Younis (UTS PhD candidate) is planning a second selenium-75 (75Se) radiotracer experiment to understand the bioaccumulation and sharing of selenium by corals and their symbionts under heat stress. The radiotracer is produced by ANSTO’s OPAL research reactor and enables Caitlin to conduct live-organism (i.e., non-destructive) radiotracing studies to understand the bioaccumulation and retention kinetics of selenium using state of the art gamma counting instruments.
Alexandra Bastick (Charles Sturt Uni Hons student) has been investigating the effect of external ionising radiation on the growth of Tisochrysis lutea, a tropical marine microalga native to Australia. This research aims to understand how naturally occurring radioactive material contaminated scale in decommissioned pipelines might impact marine organisms in the surrounding environment. Previous modelling has indicated that organisms colonizing the external surface of an intact pipe could be exposed to radiation dose rates up to three times higher than the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) international screening level (34 μGy/hr compared to 10 μGy/hr). However, this screening level was established using toxicity from a range of terrestrial and aquatic organisms, largely from the northern hemisphere, leaving knowledge gaps regarding its applicability to the unique species found in Australian marine ecosystems. To improve risk assessments for the potential in-situ decommissioning of Australian offshore oil and gas infrastructure, more radiation toxicity data is needed.
For her experiment, Alex cultured T. lutea in the lab and exposed them to a sealed Ceasium-137 source in 72-hour chronic toxicity assays, measuring their daily growth using flow cytometry. The results show no significant impact on population growth at dose rates up to 7.9 m Gy/h, which is substantially higher than what they would encounter in the environment. This suggests that the growth of T. lutea is unlikely to be affected at the expected radiation doses from NORM-contaminated pipelines. However, there may be other effects occurring that could impact cellular processes, such as photosynthesis or DNA replication, which are not reflected by measurements of growth. Additionally, radiation sensitivity is species-specific and other marine organisms that may colonize the external surfaces of pipelines could have different responses to external radiation exposure compared to T. lutea. Alex has been awarded a first class grade for her thesis and is now preparing a peer-reviewed scientific publication.
Holly Hollomon (UNSW Hons student) has submitted their thesis which aimed to develop a set of baseline data of background mercury concentrations, chemical speciation & organ partitioning of mercury in Red Emperor Fish tissue. These fish were collected in a pristine location in the northwest shelf of Western Australia by AIMS for a previous study where they examined the gut contents and determined trophic position of the samples. The experimental objective expanded after an initial literature review to include a secondary objective of selenium quantification due to its capacity to detoxify mercury. This data will provide key stakeholders with background mercury concentrations in marine fish to assist in future risk assessments for the decommissioning of subsea oil and gas infrastructure.
Fish organs were dissected and subsequently freeze-dried. Dried organs were acid digested using a closed vessel and analytical microwave then analysed using Cold Vapour-Atomic Fluorescence Spectrometry (CV-AFS; PSA Millenium Merlin). Using this instrument gives us the capacity to look at mercury at ultra-low concentrations, something that is pertinent to creating an accurate baseline dataset. Over the course of Holly’s project, one of the largest take-aways our team have found is that mercury is a very difficult element to work with. We found that there are an array of published methods for biological sample digestion that tend to contradict each other and lack the necessary QA/QC to trust the numbers that were reported. There was also a slew of analytical obstacles we have had to overcome using this new instrument. Due to these difficulties, we sent out our samples for external total mercury analysis at a NATA Accredited commercial lab. However, their results also showed poor recovery of certified reference materials and poor reproducibility. Receiving this data cemented the notion that mercury is a difficult element to work with analytically. We were able to achieve satisfactory selenium returns from external analysis and will be using this data in Holly’s thesis.
In our method development for mercury speciation (i.e. the analysis of organic vs. inorganic mercury), we have consistently been able to achieve a satisfactory recovery and reproducibility of mercury from certified reference materials in our analysis. From this preliminary data we have been able to derive some insights into the biodistribution of organic and inorganic mercury in different marine fish organs. In the kidneys and livers, we are seeing a much higher concentration of inorganic mercury than organic mercury. This can be contrasted to the hearts and gonads that tend to have both species of mercury in a 1:1 ratio. Muscle tissue samples, which are the focus of many studies on mercury, tend to exclusively show organic mercury in its tissues. There are other tissue types such as the brain, fins & gills that tend to show little to no mercury. As a first for the Australian marine ecosystem, this data provides insights into the biodistribution of mercury between different organs of marine fish, which can be used to identify potential organs of toxicity for mercury exposed fish and to inform future biomonitoring studies for mercury.
Marie Thomas (University of Queensland and AIMS PhD candidate) joined the group earlier this year to conduct a series of radiotracer experiments with different species of mercury. Marie, with the assistance of Francesca, Ali and Elisabeth, undertook dietary pulse-chase experiments using live-animal radiotracer techniques and has generated a great data set showing that methyl mercury (MeHg) is assimilated very well by snails (fed contaminated algae) and by shrimp (fed the snails in a simple food web model) and is well retained by snails and shrimp. Soluble inorganic mercury species (i.e. HgCl2) were assimilated between 50 and 70% from diet and then slowly depurated by both snails and shrimp, which was in stark contrast to insoluble inorganic mercury species (i.e. β-HgS), which was not assimilated from diet to any significant degree by either snails or shrimp and instead, passed through their guts. The data, aiming to be submitted for publication in the next few months, provides much needed information in assessing potential ecological risk from mercury associated with decommissioned offshore infrastructure to Australian marine organisms.
Further details:
For further details on ANSTO’s research into risk assessing contaminants associated with offshore oil and gas infrastructure decommissioning, please check out our website.
Aquatic and Coastal Environmental Sciences Lab,
Macquarie University - School of Natural Sciences.
Contact Dr Katherine Dafforn (Katherine.dafforn@mq.edu.au)
Stormwater and its associated environmental stressors has been a major focus for our lab group for a number of years and Luke Walker continues this research by investigating the roles of microbes (bacteria and fungi) in alleviating environmental stressors associated with stormwater drains such as heavy metals and nutrients on seagrass meadows in Lake Macquarie, NSW. Luke is currently developing microbial inoculation methods with the aim of creating experimental conditions whereby the effects of presence and absence of microbes on seagrass plants under metal stress can be measured while maintaining physico-chemically comparable sediments. Upon determination of the most effective method of inoculation, Luke will conduct the experiment regarding microbial moderated alleviation of metal stress on seagrass plants. Luke acquired funding to present his research at the European Marine Biology Symposium in Napoli, Italy (Sept this year).
After finishing her Master of Research investigating the morphological variation in the golden kelp, Ecklonia radiata, in response to urban stressors (incl. heavy metals and nutrients) (paper available here), Annemie Rose Janssen has started her PhD in October 2024, co-supervised by Prof. Melanie Bishop and Prof. Mariana Mayer-Pinto. Her research aims to unlock the secrets of adaptive strategies of kelp forests under predicted climate change and increased urbanisation. After characterising the genetic structure of kelp across Sydney Harbour, Annemie Rose has been running a mesocosm experiment at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science, exposing different genotypes to copper, to further understand the mechanisms behind urban ecological resilience of kelp forests. Annemie Rose presented her research at the Australasian Coastal Restoration Network Symposium (ACRN 2024) in May.
The lab is so proud of Amy MacIntosh who was awarded her PhD for a thesis entitled “Take it or leave it: ecological assessment of NORM from decommissioned offshore infrastructure”. Amy is putting her skills in ecological risk assessment to work by joining ARPANSA as a Technical Support Officer. We also farewelled Giulia Filippini earlier this year. After being awarded her doctorate with no corrections needed she took up a postdoctoral position with UNSW.
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England
Contacts Susan Wilson (swilso24@une.edu.au) or Matt Tighe (mtighe2@une.edu.au)
Postdoc Steven Doherty has been successful with proposals to the Australian and Taiwan Synchrotron facilities and has been working with Ed Burton of Southern Cross University and PhD student Ursina Morgenthaler of University of Bern examining arsenic, antimony and tungsten mineralogy and biogeochemical cycling.
PhD student Carolyn Sonter has recently been awarded her PhD with no corrections needed for a thesis titled “Bees under stress: A study of PFOS exposure and protected cropping stress effects on the western honey bee (Apis mellifera)”. Honours student Caitlyn George was awarded an Honours Medal for her thesis titled “The Persistence of Antibiotic Resistance Genes During Chicken Manure Composting”. Such great work by both students! PhD student Nivetha Sivarajah is continuing her work examining microplastics in agricultural soils and was successful with a DAP scholarship.
Sue and Carolyn attended the fantastic What’s in our Water conference in Canberra, and Sue recently presented as an expert witness to the Senate Inquiry on PFAS.
Recent publications from the group:
Check out our webpage at www.une.edu.au/pollutionscience. We have PhD opportunities, including scholarships.
La Trobe University Adjunct Professor Jenny Stauber (based in NSW)
Adjunct Professor Jenny Stauber was recently invited to give two plenary presentations: firstly at the Australian College of Toxicologists and Risk Assessors meeting in Canberra in late August, followed by a plenary at the SETAC Asia Pacific meeting in Tianjin, China in late September to over 1200 participants. Jenny’s talks on incorporating climate change into environmental risk assessment were illustrated with a Great Barrie Reef case study, now published as part of a series in the journal Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management vol 20 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.4871.
La Trobe PhD candidate Sarah Green (supervised by Dr Aleicia Holland, Dr David Beale and Jenny) also attended the China meeting and presented an excellent talk on her Honours work on co-accumulation of copper and zinc in zebrafish larvae. The trip included many delicious Chinese banquets, a daytime visit to markets and a night-time cruise along the river. Like many cities, Tianjin was most spectacular at night.
Sarah Green, David Beale and Darren Koppel in Tianjin
In between meetings, Jenny Stauber also travelled to Montreal Canada in September as part of her role on the international metals industries Ecotoxicity Technical Advisory Panel (ETAP). This is a 4-person panel who review and provide advice on current environmental issues in the metals and mining industries globally each year for industry stakeholders including Rio Tinto. This year the topic was the UN’s Triple Planetary Crises (climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste). This is particularly relevant as the UN seeks to establish a Science Policy Panel on Chemicals Pollution and Waste, to complement the international panels on climate change (IPCC) and biodiversity (IPBES). Unfortunately, an imminent Air Canada pilot strike forced Jenny to return immediately after the meeting, but she did get to see the spectacular light show inside Old Montreal’s cathedral.
Jenny is working with Jenni Gadd, Aleicia Holland, Rick Van Dam and wca consultants from the UK to develop a new tiered assessment framework to incorporate metal bioavailability into water quality guidelines for Australia and New Zealand. The international Metals Environment Research Associations (MERA) have provided the funding to develop and implement the approach including a new tool for calculating bioavailability-adjusted guideline values. Copper and nickel have been completed, with zinc to follow next year. The work is guided by a consultative group of regulatory scientists who have been road-testing the tool.
Office of the Supervising Scientist
Good progress has been made on the PFAS in aquatic bush food project that OSS is undertaking in collaboration with the Djurrubu Rangers. We have now completed the sampling of fish in Mudjinberri Billabong and sampling of water lily stems from Georgetown and Coonjimba Billabongs, the latter on the Ranger project area lease.
In fish, low concentrations of PFOS was detected in the flesh and somewhat higher, but still low in the liver and gonads. The good news was that no PFAS was detected in water lily stems. The fish part of the project was presented by Gisi Lamche at the WIOW symposium in October 2024 with Andrew Harford also contributing in the WIOW workshops.
Congratulations to Dr. Lisa Chandler on graduating from her PhD entitled “Responses of groundwater communities to mine-water contamination in the Australian wet-dry tropics”. A very useful and interesting project that has contributed valuable information on groundwater to the rehabilitation of the Ranger mine site.
Work is well underway to develop a site-specific water quality guideline value for aluminium in freshwater at ~ pH 6. This data will contribute to a rehabilitation standard for aluminium that OSS will recommend to the Ranger mine operator (ERA) for the protection of the aquatic ecosystem surrounding the mine site. Melanie Trenfield has been working exceptionally hard to assess all 7 of our local species, with a broad range of sensitivities observed so far. The snail exposures (reproductive endpoint) are pictured below. Two species to go, so watch this space!
The SA branch of SETAC have been a hub of research activities related to PFAS ecotoxicity, sorption and treatment, along with presentations/workshops. Few of the highlights are:
Publications:
For those interested in nature-based approaches for PFAS remediation:
Bridging the Technology Gap for Cost‐Effective and Sustainable Treatment of Per‐ and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Surface Water and Stormwater: 10.1002/rem.21790
Long-term management of PFAS contaminated water using constructed floating wetlands: Opportunities, limitations, and implementation considerations 10.1080/10643389.2024.2360762
For those interested in the use of sorbents:
Hydrophobic interaction is the dominant mechanism of zwitterionic PFAS adsorption to carbon-based sorptive materials in water and soil 10.1039/D3EW00550J
For those interested in selecting the most appropriate methods to assess PFAS leaching:
Review on Methods for Assessing and Predicting Leaching of PFAS from Solid Matrices https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40726-024-00326-6
For those interested in ecotoxicity: PFAS ecotoxicity was assessed in earthworms following soil treatment for PFAS sorption at the UniSA group
Soil amendments reduce PFAS bioaccumulation in Eisenia fetida following exposure to AFFF-impacted soil.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124489
Things other than PFAS... Activities on tyre chemicals:
Students: CSIRO welcomed 2 new CSIRO-Industry PhD students: Nikoo Moghaddam and Rosnah Rubenecia-Galo. Industry partners for Nikoo and Rosnah's work are Rembind and SpaceDownUnder, respectively.
The year has appeared to have got away from us over here, not too many activities to report from SETAC NZ as quite a few of us have been busy on the local organising committee for SETAC AU / ACTRA 2025 (more on that here).
In the meantime, the EPA has held a couple of lunchtime science seminars to which SETAC NZ members have been invited attend. Our guests included Dr Brian Richardson (Scion Research) who spoke about the future of spray-drift modelling and Dr Jörg Wicker (University of Auckland) who presented on enviPath, a prediction system for microbial biotransformation pathways of primarily xenobiotic compounds. SETAC NZ members were also invited attend a seminar by Prof. Bryan Brooks (Baylor University) that was organised by Dr Louis Tremblay (Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research).
If you are keen to present your work to SETAC NZ or wish to play swapsies for your own catch-up purposes, let us know ????
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
The EPA’s toxicologists, environmental fate scientists, and ecotoxicologists continue to work through our hazard substances applications and reassessments programmes.
Over the past months we have been busy with the following:
Our technical staff have also taken the opportunity to deliver guest lectures for students at the University of Canterbury, discussed ideas for a new PhD research project with Auckland University, and provided assistance with grant proposals (Scion Research, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research) and recently funded programmes (Cawthron Institute).
As always, the EPA is interested in hearing about tools to improve the protection of our environment and human health, if you are interested in showcasing your work to a broad audience (which I’ll open to SETAC NZ members), drop me a line (eugene.georgiades@epa.govt.nz).
Update from Jenni Gadd (Hydrotoxy Research)
Jenni Gadd (Hydrotoxy Research) and Chris Hickey (RMA Science) along with Tom Snelder of Land Water People have recently derived acute copper and zinc guideline values for freshwater in New Zealand, funded by the Ministry for the Environment (MfE). This project involved toxicity testing with a native cladoceran in waters with different chemistry to assist in selecting the most appropriate metal bioavailability models for NZ. The guideline values are both based on multiple linear regression models and differ with pH, DOC, and hardness. The method and final guideline values were peer reviewed by international experts (Jenny Stauber; Adam Peters, WCA). The derivation is documented in a technical report and the guideline values are provided in a user guide. MfE expect to make these available shortly.
Jenni has also been working with Jenny Stauber, Aleicia Holland (Latrobe University), Rick van Dam (WQ advice), and the team at WCA Environment in UK on a project to assist in implementation of the ANZG metal guideline values. This is being funded by the Metals Environmental Research Associations (copper, nickel and zinc). This has involved deriving reference guideline values to use in the absence of water chemistry data, a tool to adjust the guideline values and guidance for how to use them.
Update from Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research
Hydrogen cyanamide and soil fauna in kiwifruit orchards
In 2023, the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) updated reassessment of hydrogen cyanamide (HC), a plant growth regulator widely used by the kiwifruit industry for the promotion of bud growth. This reassessment identified a high in-field risk for springtails (Folsomia candida, of the class Collembola) that was considered to remain non-negligible even with risk mitigation measures in place. This provided MWLR (Jo Cavanagh, Grace Mitchell, Hadee Thompson-Morrison) with the opportunity to undertake a field study to assess the effects of HC on soil fauna, with a specific focus on Collembola, in kiwifruit orchards (funding provided by NZ kiwifruit growers incorporated and Zespri).
The field trial was undertaken at a green (Hayward) kiwifruit orchard using conventional management approaches in Te Puke, Bay of Plenty, with sampling for soil invertebrates and soil chemistry occurring on three occasions over August and September 2023: pre-spray, within 24 hours of spraying, and 6-week post-spray.
Spraying in progress; plastic covers used to protect the soil surface (and provide unsprayed controls) during spraying and remained on the plots for approximately 2 hours after spraying to allow any residual spray on the covers to dry, and then the covers were removed. Ten plots encompassing two rows were established and sampling was undertaken in the rows to minimise variation due to surface coverings or management.
Sampling for soil invertebrates using a split-corer.
A marked increase in Collembola abundance, particularly of the hemiedaphic Collembola, at 6 weeks post-spray was the most obvious finding. Similarly, there was a marked increase in total invertebrate abundance at 6 weeks post-spray. Overall, mites (Acariformes) were the most numerous organisms at all time-points, while the abundance of ants (Formicidae) was highly variable between treatment plots over time. The increase in abundance of invertebrates is attributed to seasonal variation, including slightly warmer temperatures, and vegetation (ground and kiwifruit coming into leaf). These findings were provided to the EPA as submissions on the reassessment and presented to the EPA decision-making committee in February 2024 and contributed to a conclusion that with controls in place, the risks to in-field soil organisms from the application of hydrogen cyanamide to orchards are negligible. This study also highlighted the knowledge gaps that exist in basic information on the abundance and diversity of soil fauna, and critically their contribution to healthy soils and ecosystem functioning in New Zealand.
Visit to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing and Attending SETAC Asia Pacific conference in Tianjin, China.
Louis Tremblay visited CAAS in Beijing hosted by Prof Zhaojun Li where he participated to a series of workshops to discuss collaborations.
On 18 September, Prof Jun Wang and Lei Sun (Grape Group, Institute of Forestry and Pomology, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences) gave a presentation on vine cultivation and table grape breeding programmes. They showed interest in collaborating with New Zealand and their interest to visit institutes like Plant and Food Research and the Bragato. PhD candidate Qingjie Li gave an outline of her project on the transfer of microplastics from soil to plant. PhD candidate Okbagaber Andom Keleta presented an overview of his project on copper contamination in vineyard soil. He is investigating the use of biochar for remediation using model machine learning. PhD candidate Komlanvi Yacob Manem gave a presentation on his project on vegetables crop systems in Togo, his home country. PhD Gregory Sungliedong Kukpieun gave a summary of his paper “Antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs), and antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs) in agri-food: a global review of the survival effects of ingestion and their risks to human health.
On 19 September, Louis gave the following presentations:
We had a round table discussion for on-going cooperation between China and New Zealand. There are multiple areas of mutual interest and Prof Li is planning to visit New Zealand to meet more colleagues and explore opportunities. He would like to contribute to a session on soil health at the upcoming 2025Wellington SETAC Australasia conference.
Louis briefly met Prof Lihui An from the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences as we are co-authoring a paper on the impacts of plastic on carbon cycle.
Louis giving a presentation at the workshop at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing.
SETAC Asia-Pacific 14th Biennial Meeting Tianjin 21-25 September
Louis Tremblay attended the SETAC Asia-Pacific 14th Biennial Meeting hosted by Nankai University in Tianjin. Nick Ling and Danielle Blackwell from Waikato University also attended the conference and presented their results from their research on trace elemental seafood safety following volcanic eruption at Whakaari White Island.
Louis was part of the academic committee of this highly successful event that attracted over 1200 participants. Louis gave a keynote presentation:
Tremblay LA, Sevicke-Jones G, Ataria JM, Leusch FDL, Baker V, Stewart M, Champeau O, and Northcott GL. 2024. Assessment of the status of Emerging Contaminants in New Zealand. An invited keynote address at the SETAC Asia-Pacific 14th Biennial Meeting, Tianjin, China. 21-25 September.
There were great presentations covering a range of topics including anti-microbial resistance (AMR), a range of ecotox research on contaminants like microplastics, pesticides etc. I had multiple discussions with colleagues from China and other countries. I met with Prof Kenneth Leung from the State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong as New Zealand is contributing to the UN endorsed Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Programme.
Outing with Prof Leung’s team and Bryan Brooks in downtown Tianjin, China.
Australian Antarctic Division - Catherine King (cath.king@aad.gov.au)
Greetings this month from Mawson Station, where I am lucky enough to be working for the summer field season from October 2024 through to February 2025. It’s been a long time coming, but finally we have embarked on our first on-site comprehensive environmental risk assessment research under our “A Cleaner Antarctica” Project. I am here with the AADs most recently appointed Research Scientists - huge congratulations to Dr Kathryn Brown (Environmental Toxicologist) and Dr Gwilym Price (Environmental Chemist) – it’s wonderful to have you both onboard in an ongoing capacity to build up the research capabilities within our program!
Mawson is the oldest and most westerly of Australia’s research stations in Antarctica, being established in 1954 and sitting approximately 5200 km south-west of Perth. The Mawson region is one of the richest areas for seabirds in the Australian Antarctic Territory, with numerous breeding colonies of Emperor and Adélie penguins, snow petrels, Antarctic petrels, Wilson’s storm petrels, cape petrels, southern giant petrels, Antarctic fulmars and skuas. Mawson is situated on an isolated outcrop of rock on the coast in Mac Robertson Land, at the edge of the Antarctic plateau. Personally, it is my favourite station and every day here is an absolute treat!
Our Work Program under “A Cleaner Antarctica” has us working on biodiversity assessments across both marine and terrestrial environments, and assessing potential impacts and risk of contaminants from legacy and contemporary human activities on ecological communities in soils, lakes, and nearshore marine waters and sediments. While we now apply responsible waste management principles as part of a comprehensive commitment to protect the environment under the Environmental Treaty (Madrid Protocol), our past activities and practices up until the mid 1980s, still potentially pose a risk to the environment. Our particular focus at Mawson is on the impacts of past waste management practices including open tips and burning, as well as the practice of ‘sea-icing’ – dumping rubbish onto the sea ice where it is left to float away and sink during the summer melt. We are also looking at the efficacy of current wastewater treatment processes and the range of contaminants that enter the marine environment and pose ongoing risk to nearshore communities.
Outside of Mawson, we also have a small team working on our ongoing fuel spill remediation sites at Casey station, and several scientists including PhD student Melanie Borup, working on drivers of biodiversity in the Bunger Hills.
Prior to our season south, our Ecotox team including Bianca Sfiligoj have been working on Direct Toxicity Assessments (DTAs) using Antarctic nematodes and rotifers to assess toxicity in bioremediated soils from Casey station. This is being done to compare toxicity across different biopile treatments, and to provide evidence and recommendations for the future reuse of soil on site. We are hoping in the next 2-3 years to close out the Casey fuel spill sites that we have been working on over many years, and to switch our programs focus to more risk assessment work to determine the need for, and prioritisation of the clean-up of other impacted sites in the AAT.
From our teams down south, and our members in Tassie, we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and all the best for 2025!
Drilling through 1.8m of sea ice to access the nearshore marine environment adjacent to the wastewater outfall at Mawson Station
ROV deployment through the sea ice used for biodiversity surveys and to delineate the extent of waste through the practice of sea-icing and the potential for accumulation of contamination in the marine receiving environment.
Sampling soils and lake waters in terrestrial environments to assess biodiversity and connectivity of communities on rare ice-free pockets of land in the Mawson region.
Some down time for the team visiting the Emperor penguins at the fabulous Auster Colony… A dream come true for me and my favourite place on earth!!
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
The latter half of 2024 has been a vibrant and productive period for the AQUEST group, marked by PhD completions, conference attendances, and recognition for our citizen science initiatives. In November, Vin, Monica, and Jackie represented AQUEST at the 2024 Victorian Marine and Coastal Awards Night at South Wharf. We were honoured to be finalists in the Inspiring Community Engagement and Education category for Professional Agencies, Large Organisations, and Industry, thanks to our Litter Trackers project. This initiative showcased the extensive journey litter can take—from local waterways to the sea. Our success was made possible by the collaboration of various partners, including Melbourne Water, Waterwatch Victoria, Corangamite CMA, Bellarine Catchment Network, the Victorian Government Port Phillip Bay Fund, Coastcare Community Grants, Moreland Council, Chain of Ponds Collaboration, Merri Creek Management Committee, and Bendigo Waterwatch. Apologies to anyone we may have inadvertently omitted! We extend our congratulations to all winners and finalists of the 2024 Awards and express our gratitude to the volunteers and caretakers along the Victorian coastline for their invaluable contributions.
We are excited to announce that AQUEST, alongside Melbourne Water, the National Measurement Institute, Australia, Port Phillip EcoCentre Inc., and the Werribee River Association, has secured funding from the Victorian Government Port Phillip Bay Fund for the project "Exploring Unseen Threats: Contaminant Trends and Impacts in Port Phillip Bay." Over the next three years, we will monitor 19 estuaries entering Port Phillip Bay for contaminants, and assessing their biological impact to guide evidence-based management actions. The first round of sampling is underway. If you're interested in volunteering on this project, please email us at aquest@rmit.edu.au or visit our website.
We are delighted to announce that Madara Ranatunga's PhD thesis has been accepted. Supervised by Professor Vincent Pettigrove and Dr Claudette Kellar, her research on the toxicological effects of bifenthrin on urban fauna and the endangered Growling Grass Frog is groundbreaking. Her work includes a review paper in Environmental Advances, with more publications forthcoming. Congratulations to Madara!
Several PhD candidates have reached their 2nd and 3rd-year milestones, while we also have a Masters by Research student and PhD in the final stages of thesis writing looking to submit in early 2025. Additionally, three Masters of Biotechnology students have completed their studies, focusing on the effects of substrate on benthic algal growth and biomass measures assessed using a benthotorch and traditional chlorophyll extractions and assessing the role of different diets on the food quality of shrimp.
AQUEST students and staff actively participated in the 9th annual WETT Research Centre HDR Symposium at RMIT City campus, featuring industry keynote speakers. Adele Romagnano and Anuradha Athawuda delivered oral presentations, while Anna Flynn and Thi Huyen (Emily) Nguyen presented posters. Adele won the Best Oral Presentation - People's Choice, and Anna the Best Poster Presentation. Dr Georgia Sinclair received the 2024 WETT Best Thesis Award. Congratulations to all!
Anna Flynn also attended the Australian Microbial Ecology Conference (AusME) in Parramatta, NSW, in October, presenting a poster on her PhD work and PhD candidate Adele Romagnano gained media attention with her call for platypus carcasses to study pollution effects, which you can listen to here: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/vic-statewide-mornings/mornings/104670826 (from 1:33:13). If you find a carcass, please contact her at 0450 089 745.
Lastly, Professor Vin Pettigrove attended the SETAC North America 2024 conference in Fort Worth, Texas, in October, facilitating a valuable exchange of knowledge and provided valuable insights into the latest research being undertaken on toxicants, microplastics, and ecotoxicology globally.
Recent Publications
Cacciatori C, Mariani G, Comero S, Marin D, Cabrera M, Bon-Tavarnese J, Gaggstatter J, Tavazzi S, Maffettone R, Myers J, Pettigrove V and Gawlik BM (2024) "The Gems of Water": a co-created scientist citizen approach for water quality monitoring. Front. Water 6:1358959. http://doi.org/10.3389/frwa.2024.1358959
Paige, T., De Silva, T., Buddhadasa, S., Prasad, S. Nugegoda, D. and V. Pettigrove. Background concentrations and spatial distribution of PFAS in surface waters and sediments of the greater Melbourne area, Australia, Chemosphere 349 (2024), http://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2023.140791.
Serasinghe, P., Nguyen, H.T.K., Hepburn, C., Nugegoda, D. and V. Pettigrove. Use of passive sampling and high-resolution mass spectrometry for screening emerging pesticides of concern within surface waters, Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 13 (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazadv.2024.100408.
Toxicity of the organic UV filter oxybenzone to the brown macroalga Hormosira banksii and the green macroalga Ulva lactuca. M Carve, N Singh, S Grist, J Shimeta, D Nugegoda. Science of The Total Environment 958, 177982, 2025
Trace element concentrations in dolphins of south-east Australia; mercury a cause for concern in the region. CS Foord, K Robb, D Nugegoda, Marine Pollution Bulletin 209, 117130
Development and Validation of a Novel Method Using QuEChERS and UHPLC-MS-MS for the Determination of Multiple Emerging Fungicides in Surface Waters. P Serasinghe, D Taleski, HTK Nguyen, D Nugegoda, V Pettigrove. Separations 11 (10), 279
Multigenerational exposure of Daphnia carinata to NSAIDs in individual concentrations and binary mixtures. HSV de Souza, A Kumar, D Nugegoda
Environmentally relevant concentrations of chemically complex shale gas wastewater led to reduced fitness of water fleas (Daphnia carinata): multiple lines of evidence approach. DJ Willems, A Kumar, TV Nguyen, DJ Beale, D Nugegoda. Journal of Hazardous Materials 463, 132839=
Interactions Between Heavy Metal Exposure and Blood Biochemistry in an Urban Population of the Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) in Australia. D Nzabanita, RA Mulder, DC Lettoof, S Grist, JO Hampton, J Hufschmid, ... Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 86 (2), 178-186
Background concentrations and spatial distribution of PFAS in surface waters and sediments of the greater Melbourne area, Australia. T Paige, T De Silva, S Buddhadasa, S Prasad, D Nugegoda, V Pettigrove. Chemosphere 349, 140791
Use of passive sampling and high-resolution mass spectrometry for screening emerging pesticides of concern within surface waters. P Serasinghe, HTK Nguyen, C Hepburn, D Nugegoda, V Pettigrove. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 13, 100408
Hepatic concentrations of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in dolphins from south-east Australia: Highest reported globally. CS Foord, D Szabo, K Robb, BO Clarke, D Nugegoda. Science of the Total Environment 908, 168438
Exposure to persistent organic pollutants in Australian waterbirds. D Nzabanita, H Shen, S Grist, PJ Lewis, JO Hampton, SM Firestone, ...Environmental toxicology and chemistry 43 (4), 736-747
See our website for more publications, technical reports and project information: http:rmit.edu.au/aquest
L-R: Dr Andrew Boxhall, Dr Jackie Myers, Monica Tewman and Prof Vincent Pettigrove
Madara Ranatunga and Claudette Keller on having her PhD accepted
Dr Sara Long with PhD candidate Anna Flynn posing by Anna's poster at the WETT symposium
RMIT Applied Chemistry and Environmental Science (ACES) – Dr Kathryn Hassell (kathryn.hassell@rmit.edu.au)
It has been a busy year for the ACES team at RMIT. Kath has just wrapped up her first year of undergraduate teaching in the Bachelor of Environmental Science program, and is looking forward to celebrating graduation with the students at the RMIT Graduation Ceremony in a week or so. A large part of the degree is the several field trips and field-based experiences the students get to do, and undergraduates also get to complete science research projects in their final year. We took a group of students out to the Merri Ck to learn about water quality sampling, macroinvertebrate survey techniques and general lab-based water chemistry methods.
PhD student, Gina Mondschein has made a terrific start to her project, already completing a long-term lab-based experiment with freshwater shrimp and recycled water. The first round of field testing is also just about to wrap up, with macroinvertebrate and zooplankton surveys to be done and retrievals of an in-situ shrimp caging study in recycled water ponds at the Western Treatment Plant. Gina’s project is supported by the Peter Teasdale Memorial Award. Along the same theme, in the new year, Honours student, Becky Penhall will start a project with Kath looking at recycled water ecotoxicological testing. Meanwhile, final year PhD student, Tehmina Yaqoob has been developing early life stage toxicity tests with two native fish species. She has been testing their sensitivities to different pesticides in the lab, and exposing embryos to surface waters collected from field sites with different levels of pesticide pollution.
Kath along with Gina and members from the AQUEST Research Group recently attended the 9th Annual WETT Research Centre HDR Symposium at RMIT. Keynote speakers from South East Water and RMIT talked about urban planning and recycled water reuse and commercialisation opportunities from water sector research projects. HDR students from RMIT School of Science and School of Engineering presented oral and poster presentations on their research covering everything from environmental monitoring using platypus and macroinvertebrates, to advanced treatment technologies for resource recovery in biosolids and microplastics measurements in wastewater. Current and former RMIT Ecotoxicology and AQUEST research students cleaned up in the award ceremony, with Dr Daniel Willems, Dr Georgia Sinclair, Anna Flynn and Adele Romagnano all receiving awards. Kath also participated in a panel discussion on Circular Economy and balancing resource recovery and contamination risks.
A definite recent highlight was the 8th What's in our Water Symposium in Canberra. The event brought together government, policy makers, regulators, consultants and researchers to discuss current challenges with water pollution management in Australasia. There was a big focus on recognising that all compartments of the environment are connected, and we can learn a lot from First Nations knowledge and practice in this space. Anu and team organised a fantastic line up of keynote and plenary speakers to connect the theme of “restoring water health through knowledge-based solutions” and there was a real feeling of momentum building in ways we can tackle water pollution management in Australasia into the future.
Kath has also recently been back to school, being invited to Wesley College, Faculty of Sciences to discuss career paths and opportunities in the environmental sciences with Yr 11 International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program students.
Third-year RMIT undergraduate students completing field assessments as part of their science research projects on waterway quality in the Merri Ck.
PhD student Gina Mondschein adjusting sampling cages in a recycled water pond at the Western Treatment Plant.
Participants at the Annual WETT Research Centre HDR Symposium at RMIT.
The WiOW Organising Committee: Thao Nguyen, Glen Walker, Louis Tremblay, Anu Kumar, Minna Saaristo, Kath Hassell, Janina Beyer and Andrew Harford. *absent – Graham Sevicke-Jones.
Kath Hassell outside Wesley College, St Kilda Rd Campus
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University – Professor Bob Wong (bob.wong@monash.edu, bobwonglab.org, @BBM_Wong)
Conferences have dominated the past six months in the Behavioural Ecology Research Group. In late September, Bob hosted, in his role as Chair of the Local Organising Committee, the 19th International Society for Behavioral Ecology Congress here in Melbourne. Postponed twice because of the Covid-19 pandemic (in 2020 and 2022), it was wonderful (and a massive relief) to be able to finally welcome the international behavioural ecology community to Australia, including many behavioural ecotoxicologists from around the world. More recently, several members of the Group also attended the Australasian Evolution Society Conference in Perth, where three PhD students—Rhiannon Eastment, Jack Manera and Shiho Ozeki—were awarded prizes for their presentations.
In other news, we are delighted to be hosting two international visitors here at Monash. Associate Professor Oded Berger-Tal from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, is currently on a sabbatical. An expert in conservation behaviour, Oded and Bob are working (among other things) on several review papers discussing the ecological impacts of chemical pollution, and other anthropogenic stressors, on wildlife behaviour. The Group also welcomed Marta Favero, a PhD student from the University of Tuscia, Italy, who is collaborating with Bob and Prof Donald Wlodkowic (RMIT) on the impacts of chemical pollution on behaviour throughout ontogeny in brine shrimp. Apart from welcoming visitors, we also bid farewell to postdoctoral research associate Dr Upama Aich who has moved to the University of Western Australia to take up a prestigious Forrest Foundation Fellowship, where she will be investigating the ecological and evolutionary effects of agricultural contaminants on dung beetles. Two PhD students have also recently submitted their theses, and we take the opportunity to congratulate both Gabriela Melo and Rhiannon Eastment on their achievements.
Recent relevant publications (lab affiliated members in bold; * denotes joint senior authors)
Bertram, M.G., Wong, B.B.M., Kümmerer, K., Jörg, M. In press. Development of environmentally biodegradable drugs: what are the key challenges? Expert Opinion On Drug Discovery.
Bertram, M.G., Ågerstrand, M., Allen, J., Brooks, B.W., Dang, Z., Duquesne, S., Ford, A.T., Hoffmann, F., Hollert, H., Jacob, S., Kloas, W., Klüver, N., Lazorchak, J., Ledesma, M., Maack, G., Melvin, S.D., Mohr, S., Padilla, S., Pyle, G., Saaristo, M., Sahm, R., Smit, E., Steevens, J.A., Thoré, E.S.J., van den Berg, S., Vossen, L.E., Wong, B.B.M., Ziegler, M., Brodin, T. In press. EthoCRED: A framework to guide reporting and evaluation of the relevance and reliability of behavioural ecotoxicity studies. Biological Reviews.
Aich, U., Polverino, G., Parast, F.Y., Melo, G.C., Tan, H., Howells, J., Nosrati, R., Wong, B.B.M. In press. Long-term effects of widespread pharmaceutical pollution on trade-offs between behavioural, life-history and reproductive traits in fish. Journal of Animal Ecology.
Fergusson, K.N., Tanner, J.L., Brand, J.A., Hannington, S.L., Pettersen, A.K., Sundin, J., Saaristo, M., Bertram, M.G.,* Martin, J.M.,* Wong, B.B.M.* 2024. Effects of long-term fluoxetine exposure on morphology, but not behaviour or metabolic rate, in male guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Aquatic Toxicology. 276: 107082
Michelangeli, M., Martin, J.M., Robson, S., Cerveny, D., Walsh, R., Richmond, E.K., Grace, M.R., Brand, J.A., Bertram, M.G., Ho, S.S.Y., Brodin, T.*, Wong, B.B.M.* 2024. Pharmaceutical pollution alters the structure of freshwater communities and hinders their recovery from a fish predator. Environmental Science & Technology 58: 13904-13917.
Photo caption: Past and current members of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group attending the ISBE Congress hosted by Bob in Melbourne in late September.
Photo caption: Celebrating the lab PhD prize winners at the Australian Evolution Society Conference in Perth in December, from left to right: Upama Aich, Shiho Ozeki, Jack Manera, Bob Wong and Rhiannon Eastment.