Regional Reports December 2024

Category: Our People

  04 Dec 2024


Queensland

Mikaela Nordborg North QLD Regional Representative

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.