swilso24@une.edu.eu
CSIRO Land and Water, Lucas Heights, Aquatic Contaminants Group (Lisa Golding lisa.golding@csiro.au)
April/May 2022 was when dreams came true for the ecotox crew from Lucas Heights with completion of experimental work at the SeaSim facility at AIMS in Townsville. Lisa Golding led an expert team (Merrin Adams, Monique Binet, Gwilym Price, Mandy Reichelt-Brushett and Jenny Stauber) in collaboration with Craig Humphrey, Matt Salmon and Justin Hochen at SeaSim to determine the acute and chronic toxicity of manganese to adult coral (Acropora millepora). These vital data will contribute to deriving a marine manganese guideline value and will be presented at the SETAC-AP virtual conference in September 2022. The experiment was originally planned for 2020 but COVID-related issues caused delays then contributed to the challenges of coral bleaching events and flooding that were faced in 2022 but the team was able to handle the challenges and complete the experimental work successfully and have our dreams come true!
Lisa Golding has been co-supervising a post-doc, Gaurangi Anand, in the AI/ML future science platform on using machine learning methods to predict chemical toxicity to aquatic biota when there are sparse toxicity data sets and was part of a Q&A panel at the MARS 2022 conference in May. Lisa has recently had a publication accepted in the special tribute edition of Environmental Chemistry dedicated to the past and ongoing scientific achievements of Graeme Batley.
The Lucas Heights team were also very proud of Graeme Batley when he received his Member of the Order of Australia (MA) medal in May at a special ceremony with family at the Governor of NSW residence. Graeme is a valued and respected member of the team and this award is one way to acknowledge all that he continues to contribute to environmental toxicology and chemistry. Please see the special feature for more highlights of Graeme’s career so far!
Recent publications:
Golding, L.A., Kumar, A., Adams, M.S., Binet, M.T., Gregg, A., King, J., McKnight, K.S., Nidumolu, B., Spadaro, D.A., Kirby, J.K., 2022. The influence of salinity on the chronic toxicity of shale gas flowback wastewater to freshwater organisms. Journal of Hazardous Materials 428, 128219. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.128219.
Golding, L.A., Valdivia, M.V., van Dam, J.W., Batley, G.E., Apte, S.C., 2022 (accepted). Toxicity of arsenic (V) to temperate and tropical marine biota and the derivation of a chronic marine water quality guideline. Environmental Chemistry. https://www.publish.csiro.au/EN/justaccepted/EN22039
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Susan Wilson (swilso24@une.edu.au) and Matt Tighe (mtighe2@une.edu.au)
A snapshot update focussing on student news:
Last year 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. Pleasingly this year, with UNE Graduations restarting, she was able to receive the medal in person. Steven Doherty has submitted his PhD “Speciation, associations, and geochemical transformations of antimony and arsenic in a mine-contaminated freshwater system” and moves to a postdoc with Southern Cross University. He’s published 3 papers from the work so far with more to come. Carolyn Sonter, currently completing her PhD on PFAS effects on honey bee colonies is also an experienced bee keeper. She presented at this year’s 4th Australian Bee Congress, and creamed honey from her productive hives was awarded 3rd place. She has also recently been interviewed by ABC New England North West about the impacts of the recent varroa mite outbreak in NSW on bee colonies.
Recent publications:
Doherty, S., Rueegsegger, I., Tighe, M.K., Milan, L.A. & Wilson S.C. (2022) Antimony and arsenic particle size distribution in a mining contaminated freshwater river: Implications for sediment quality assessment and quantifying dispersion. Environmental Pollution, 305, 119204, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119204
Esmaeili, A., Knox, O., Juhasz, A & Wilson, SC. (2022) Differential accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in three earthworm ecotypes: Implications for exposure assessment on historically contaminated soils. Environmental Advances, 7, 100175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envadv.2022.100175
Check out our webpage at www.une.edu.au/pollutionscience, and follow us on Twitter at @UNEPollutionSci. We have new PhD opportunities, including scholarships.
Carolyn Sonter’s presentation for the 4th Australian Bee Congress
Sajanee Gunadasa receives the Chancellors Medal at the 2022 UNE Graduation
ANSTO Environmental Toxicology and Radioecology Team, Francesca Gissi (Francesca.gissi@ansto.gov.au)
In December 2021, Tom Cresswell and Francesca Gissi chaired the Mercury Australia Symposium. The symposium was a great success and was attended by researchers, regulators and industry representatives. Keynote speakers included Sarah Douglass (DAWE) who discussed Australia’s ratification of the Minamata Convention and Dr Jeroen Sonke (Geosciences Environment Toulouse – Université de Toulouse) and Dr Chuxian Li (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) who presented their research on differences in biogeochemical mercury cycling and anthropogenic mercury enrichment between Northern and Southern hemispheres. Talks in the symposium covered topics from artisanal small scale gold mining, mercury in offshore infrastructure decommissioning and mercury in the atmosphere. The best student presentation was awarded to Jalene Nalbant (Australian National University), sponsored by AINSE. The best postgraduate presentation award went to Darren Koppel (Curtin University/AIMS), sponsored by Metrohm Australia.
The ANSTO Offshore Infrastructure Decommissioning team presented a virtual poster at the SETAC Europe conference to raise awareness and interest of contaminants in subsea oil and gas infrastructure and the current knowledge gaps needing to be filled to improve ecological risk assessments. If you want to know more about our offshore decommissioning research, check out our ‘explainer video’ below:
Click here to view video or scan the QR code above
Francesca Gissi and Alexandra Boyd have enjoyed getting back into the lab this year and have been busy running experiments to develop and valid a method in our labs using toluene to extract methylmercury from environmental samples (water, sediment, biota). The method is utilising the radioactive mercury-203 made in ANSTO’s OPAL reactor.
Francesca has also been co-supervising a Masters student Kate Mutch from Western Sydney University, with Val Spikmans (WSU), Eleonora Egidi (WSU) and Chris Doyle (DPE). Kate’s project is investigating the presence of microbial life inhabiting the highly acidic and metal-laden sediment dams at the abandoned Captains Flat/Lake George mine site in NSW. Kate and Francesca collected samples from the site in April and Kate has been busy in the lab extracting and amplifying DNA from the water and sediment samples. The long-term goal of the project is to identify microbes which could potentially be used to remediate the site which has been abandoned since the 1970s but continues to impact the surrounding environment through the release of metals into the adjacent river.
Danielle Hill has spent the last 6 months on a Fulbright Future Scholarship conducting research at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Her research there has focussed on the accumulation of legacy radionuclides and metals in tadpoles at different development stages. She’ll be returning to Sydney in August with plans to continue this research by examining changes in biodistribution of the accumulated contaminants using the XFM beamline at the Australian Synchrotron. Danielle’s review paper on the effects of metals during amphibian metamorphosis was recently published (Hill et al., 2021).
Amy MacIntosh is currently in the laboratory separating various radionuclides (Po-210, Pb-210, Ra-226) from sediment and animal tissues (amphipods) that were exposed to barite scale for 28 days. This process can take a minimum of 2 months and then the waiting time for actual results can lead it being 3 months!
Amy was invited on the Carry the One Radio: The Science Podcast to talk about her PhD, her journey into STEM, being a woman in environmental sciences and diversity and inclusion in universities.
New publications from the group:
Hill, D., Cresswell, T., Bennett, W. & Lanctôt, C. (2021). Fate And Sublethal Effects Of Metals During Amphibian Metamorphosis: A Systematic Review. Critical Reviews In Environmental Science And Technology, 1-18. Doi: 10.1080/10643389.2021.2002117.
Kho, F., Koppel, D.J., von Hellfeld, R., Hastings, A., Gissi, F., Cresswell, T., Higgins, S. (2022). Current Understanding of The Ecological Risk of Mercury from Subsea Oil and Gas Infrastructure to Marine Ecosystems. Journal of Hazardous Materials. 129348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129348.
Koppel, D. J., F. Kho, A. Hastings, D. Crouch, A. MacIntosh, T. Cresswell and S. Higgins (2022). Current understanding and research needs for ecological risk assessments of naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) in subsea oil and gas pipelines. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 241: 106774.
Penrose, B., MacIntosh, A.E., Parbhakar-Fox, A., Smith, L.B.E., Sawyer, T., D'Agnese, E., Carver S. (2022). Heavy metal wombats? Metal exposure pathways to bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) living on remediated tin mine tailings. Science of The Total Environment. 835: 155526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155526.
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 dry season fieldwork across a number of projects throughout north Queensland and the Northern Territory, as well as setting up to run a number of aquatic environmental monitoring skills short courses. The team hosted the first SETAC-AU hybrid council meeting in early July. For many of us it was the firsrt time we had seen other SETAC members in person since the Darwin 2019 conference!
Shelley Templeman and her team launched the Sate of the Tropics 2022 focus report - COVID-19 in the Tropics on the 29th of June (International Day of the Tropics). The report investigated the impact COVID-19 had on different regions in the Tropics, considering both fragility and resilience within societal systems. The event was presented as a hybrid, with representatives from 15 seperate nations across the globe including Kenya, The Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, America and Japan.
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. Maddi is presenting some of her most recent research at the upcoming AMSA conference in Cairns.
Shelley launching the 2022 State of the Tropics report
Post-wet season sampling among the gum trees in outback Queensland.
After completing a bachelor in Molecular Biotechnology at Curtin, Tereena Lucas completed a Master’s in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases through the University of Edinburgh. Currently based in Perth, she recently started a Masters in Forensic Science majoring in toxicology through the University of Western Sydney and the University of Florida. This Master has a heavy focus on environmental toxicology and forensic which it really exciting for Tereena!
Darren Koppel now left Curtin University to join the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Perth as a research scientist to continue work in the ecological risk assessment of contaminants. He is continuing his work assessing the risk of contaminants from offshore oil and gas decommissioning, working closely with Dr Tom Cresswell’s ANSTO team.
Francis Spilsbury has completed his PhD well within the 3 years allocated on the topic “Fish Fingerprints: Signature of Oil Contamination”. His great work and enthusiasm lead him to an exciting post-doc at University of Gothenburg in Sweden where he will spend a few years handling his favourite topics: mega databases, impact assessments, water quality.
Tristan Stringer will return to Australia after travelling during long service leave, and Alan Scarlett manages a new project on PFAS and Azolla between camping trips in the outback.
Antarctic nematode Plectus murrayi used in toxicity tests to assess impacts of fuels and nutrients in Antarctic soils.
AQUEST Research Group, School of Science, RMIT University – Monica Tewman (monica.tewman@rmit.edu.au)
It’s been a busy six months for the Aquest group, with everyone coming back to the lab and office. Congratulations go to Dr Sara Long, lead author of two chapters in the recently published Applied Environmental Metabolomics: Community Insights and Guidance from the Field. The chapters outline case studies where worms and chironomids (fly larvae) are used to identify early metabolic changes following zinc exposure and how these methods can be used as an early warning system for water pollution.
It’s been a great year so far on the conference front, with three researchers from our team able to attend conferences in person! Professor Vincent Pettigrove attended the SETAC Europe conference in Copenhagen, Demark last month where he gained insight into the latest research happening in Europe related to microplastics, chemicals of concern and road runoff. Vin also visited the Joint Research Centre for the European Union, in Ispra, Italy, where we have a new PhD student collaboration looking at pesticides across jurisdictions.
Dr Kath Hassell and Dr Claudette Kellar attended the Stormwater Victoria Conference in Geelong in June, presenting on how stormwater influences constructed wetland performance and maintenance and the types and levels of pollutants that come from new housing developments. Their presentations were very well received, with many excited attendees from industry and academia happy to be catching up in person!
We have had a flurry of students starting their projects, making for a very busy lab and field season. For instance, Tanya Paige has been running field calibrations for passive samplers as part of her PhD project, and Hannah Feraone has completed her first round of sampling in stormwater wetlands to investigate the relationships between biofilms, zooplankton and macroinvertebrates and pollution as part of her Honours Project. Ayman Abuameen passed his confirmation of candidature for his PhD looking at microplastics in stormwater wetlands and Madara Ranatunga passed her second-year milestone, showcasing the work she has been undertaking looking at the impacts of bifenthrin on local urban water bodies and their fauna. Many of our students are writing literature reviews, with several preparing or submitting publications. Look out for these in our next update!
We are very excited to be bringing our Litter Trackers to Geelong, Bellarine, and the Surf Coast, on Wadawurrong Country. We will be engaging with local schools and community groups to deploy GPS tagged bottles into waterways across the region, with four events during August and September 2022. To project is a collaboration with the Corangamite CMA and Bellarine Catchment Network, supported by Coastcare Victoria and the Victorian Government. More details can be found on the Aquest website.
Lastly, we have been interviewing for a macroinvertebrate person to join our team, so in the next update our group will have grown!
Recent publications from the group include:
S. M. Long, K. J. Jeppe, R. Reid, D. P. De Souza, K. Kanojia, J. Pyke, S. O’Callaghan, S. Dayalan,
V. J. Pettigrove, A. A. Hoffmann, M. J. McConville and D. L. Tull (2022). Using laboratory-cultured nonbiting midge larvae (Chironomus tepperi) to identify early metabolic changes following exposure to zinc, pages 291-306. In Applied Environmental Metabolomics, Community Insights and Guidance from the Field, Editors: D. J. Beale, K. E. Hillyer, A. C. Warden, O. A. H. Jones. Academic Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816460-0.00012-5
S. M. Long, G. M. Sinclair, A. L. O’Brien, R. Boyle, D. P. De Souza, K. A. Kouremenos, K. Kanojia, S. Dayalan, M. J. Keough, R. A. Coleman, M. J. McConville, O. A.H. Jones, and D. L. Tull (2022). Using field-collected estuarine worms to identify early metabolic changes following exposure to zinc, pages 307 – 322. In Applied Environmental Metabolomics, Community Insights and Guidance from the Field, Editors: D. J. Beale, K. E. Hillyer, A. C. Warden, O. A. H. Jones. Academic Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816460-0.00019-8
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University – Professor Bob Wong (bob.wong@monash.edu, bobwonglab.org, @BBM_Wong)
The past six months has seen the arrival of two new postdoctoral research associates in the Behavioural Ecology Research Group. Dr Giovanni Polverino will be undertaking research investigating the impacts of psychoactive pollutants on among and within individual behavioural variation as part of Prof Wong’s Future Fellowship project, while Dr Upama Aich will be investigating the role of androgenic endocrine disruptors on sexual selection under a recently awarded ARC Discovery Grant. In addition to the new postdocs, two behavioural ecotoxicology PhD students, Shiho Ozeki and Radha Rafeeq, have also recently joined the lab. Shiho will be co-supervised by former lab member Dr Jake Martin, who recently commenced a postdoc position with Prof Tomas Brodin at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Radha will be co-supervised with Dr Minna Saaristo from the Victorian EPA.
Research activity in the lab in the first half of 2022 has focussed mostly on the impacts of psychoactive pollutants on aquatic wildlife ecology and evolution. PhD student Lucinda Aulsebrook, for example, recently completed a series of experiments investigating the effects of fluoxetine on host-disease dynamics and life history traits in water fleas. Meanwhile, before leaving for his postdoc in Sweden, Dr Martin completed experiments investigating the relationship between long term (i.e. multigenerational) fluoxetine exposure on behaviour and gut microbiomes in guppies. Currently, Prof Wong and two PhD students, Hung Tan and Jack Brand, are in Stockholm, Sweden, carrying out research investigating the relationship between pharmaceutical exposure, brain size, and behaviour in fish. The Swedish research (undertaken in collaboration with Prof Niclas Kolm from Stockholm University and Prof Brodin, Dr Martin, and Dr Michael Bertram from SLU) will capitalise on guppies that have been selected for large and small brains as part of a long-term experimental evolution study in Prof Kolm’s lab. Several other PhD members of the Group will be coming to Sweden at the end of July to deliver talks at the 19th International Society for Behavioural Ecology Congress. As Chair of the 20th ISBE Congress, Prof Wong will also be making the pitch to conference delegates to promote Melbourne as the host city and venue for the 2024 Congress.
Lastly, the Behavioural Ecology Research Group has been busy with a range of science and career outreach activities, including a recent talk by Prof Wong on ‘Sex in a changing world’ for ABC Radio National’s Okham’s Razor and participation on panel discussions to promote diversity and representation in STEM as part of Pride Week and IDAHOBIT Day.
Link to Okham’s Razor talk: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/sex-in-a-changing-world/13869892
Recent relevant publications (lab affiliated members in bold; * denotes joint senior authors)
Bertram, M.G., Martin, J.M., McCallum, E.S., Alton, L.A., Brand, J.A., Brooks, B.W., Cerveny, D., Fick, J., Ford, A.T., Hellström, G., Michelangeli, M., Nakagawa, S., Polverino, G., Saaristo, M., Sih, A., Tan, H., Tyler, C.R., Wong, B.B.M., Brodin, T., In press. Frontiers in quantifying wildlife behavioural responses to chemical pollution. Biological Reviews.
Martin, J, Orford, J.T., Melo, G.C., Tan, H., Mason, R.T., Ozeki, S., Bertram, M.G., Wong, B.B.M.*, Alton, L.A.* 2022. Exposure to an androgenic agricultural pollutant does not alter metabolic rate, behaviour, or morphology of tadpoles. Environmental Pollution. 299: 118870.
Aulsebrook, L.C., Wong, B.B.M., Hall, M.D. 2022. Warmer temperatures limit the effects of antidepressant pollution on life-history traits. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 289: 20212701.
Willmott, N.K., Wong, B.B.M., Lowe, E.C, McNamara, K.B., Jones, T.M. 2022. Exploitation of anthropogenic change: interactions and consequences. Quarterly Review of Biology. 97: 15-35.
Hung Tan, Jack Brand and Bob Wong (left to right) taking a break from experiments at Stockholm University to enjoy midsummer festivities in Sweden.
Dustsafe Aotearoa: a citizen science programme running for one year only!
A team led by Melanie Kah and Emma Sharp at the University of Auckland, launched Soilsafe Aotearoa in 2021. The programme offers free screening of domestic garden soil for metals and metalloids, as well as many community engagement and educational activities. More than 3000 samples from 600+ homes have been analysed already! You can learn more about Soilsafe Aotearoa here: https://soilsafe.auckland.ac.nz/
Now they have just launched Dustsafe Aotearoa. The programme offers free screening of home dust for metal and metalloids. They are also hoping to analyse the samples for other contaminants with the aim to better understand human exposure in the home environment. If you would like to learn more, or even send a sample! Please visit the website: https://www.dustsafe.auckland.ac.nz. The portal closes in November 2022, so don’t wait to send in your dust!
The Dustsafe Aotearoa team, Melanie Kah (left), MSc student Declan Fisher (centre) and Emma Sharp (right).
Toxicologists catch-up despite COVID
After numerous attempts to meet in-person were postponed, an informal group of NZ-based toxicologists coordinated by Belinda Cridge of ESR finally met virtually in February. There was a presentation from Kenton Rusbridge and Trudy Geoghegan from Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) about their work on gas detection for urban and wildfire situations and a discussion led by Peter Cressey and Belinda on food risk assessment. The meeting wrapped up with a discussion on new approach methodology as a general topic.
Hope for declining freshwater mussels
NIWA principal ecotoxicology technician Karen Thompson has recently published in Molluscan Research https://doi.org/10.1080/13235818.2022.2040097, the first documented case of successful in vitro metamorphosis, from glochidia to juvenile, of a native NZ freshwater mussel (kākahi). This breakthrough has implications for the conservation of Australasian species, many of which are in decline due to degradation of water quality. The transformation of large numbers of larvae provides the first step in efficient mass production of juvenile and adult mussels, for use in ecotoxicity research, to support bioremediation studies and for restocking populations in restoration projects.
PFAS discussions in Aotearoa
A group of researchers based in Auckland - Melanie Kah, Erin Leitao, Lokesh Padhye (The University of Auckland) and Jack Chen (AUT) - is organising monthly online sessions on the topic of PFAS in NZ. The purpose is to share relevant results and perspectives, stay up to date with regulations, discuss commercial implications of PFAS regulations, identify knowledge gaps, and build collaborations for better management of PFAS in NZ. The one-hour sessions include short presentations from local and international speakers and are open to everyone. Current participants cover a range of sectors (industry, government, research) and disciplines (chemistry, engineering, biology, social science etc). If you are keen to join this network, please contact Erin Leitao erin.leitao@auckland.ac.nz
More information is available here: https://nzic.org.nz/news-20220324
Significant changes afoot in the timber industry
In her role as decision maker with the HSNO Committee with the EPA, Streamlined Environmental Director and Scientist Dr Ngaire Phillips is able to use her scientific knowledge to contribute to positive and often far-reaching outcomes for the broader community, an opportunity she relishes. She has recently been involved in two nationally-significant applications associated with New Zealand’s timber industry that spanned several years, involved multiple hearings, numerous submissions and complex and challenging science.
Many importing countries require products like logs and timber to be treated (for example, by fumigation or heat treatment) to control quarantine pests. There are a limited number of treatment options available in New Zealand. Methyl bromide is a highly effective fumigant used for treating primary products for export – as well as imported goods – to control quarantine pests. Fumigation of forest products (logs and timber) for export currently accounts for 94% of methyl bromide use in New Zealand. It is the main treatment option for above-deck log exports to China and the only viable option for log exports to India. Fumigation of other export goods and imported goods to manage biosecurity risks account for the remaining 6% of use. However, methyl bromide is also toxic to humans and contributes to ozone depletion.
In their August 2021 decision on the reassessment of methyl bromide, the Decision Making Committee (DMC, of which Dr Phillips was Chair) set in place a clear and structured pathway for the industry to reduce the amount of methyl bromide emitted through significantly greater recapture performance, more efficient fumigation practices and restrictions on use. This pathway also provides incentive for industry to invest in strategies to reduce methyl bromide emissions.
In a more recent decision (April 2022) a Decision Making Committee (of which Dr Phillips was a member) approved an application for the use of an alternative, less toxic fumigant ethylene dinitrile (EDN) on the basis that its benefits are significant, and that adverse effects are negligible with the appropriate control measures. The DMC also accepted the evidence that EDN is the most viable replacement for methyl bromide for treating timber and logs. Worksafe also produced two Safe Work Instruments addressing health and safety requirements for the use of EDN, a relatively new process which increased the complexity of the application for the DMC.
These decisions provide a pathway forward for industry. They are also likely to lead to positive environmental and human health outcomes, through the reduction in methyl bromide emissions, while supporting social and economic benefits associated with the timber industry.
Log storage yard at a New Zealand port.