CSIRO Environment, Lucas Heights
NSW Focus on New Ventures - CSIRO Lucas Heights Team
The team at CSIRO Environment, Lucas Heights celebrated 42 years of research in contaminant chemistry and effects risk assessment with a dinner bringing together current and former research colleagues before closing the site office on 30 March 2024. The dinner provided a time to reflect and share laughter and fond memories of all that the collective team has achieved and to look forward to new life pathways. Below is a summary of where people are and what they are working on currently.
Merrin Adams is currently working with the Environment Protection Science Branch (EPS) within the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Merrin is working with Janina Beyer (EPS) to implement their science strategy and will be supporting future activities on pesticides, biodiversity, chemical-safe circular economies, and NSW regulation and policy. While EPS is based at Lidcombe and regional NSW, Merrin now calls Newcastle home. Merrin has also continued with some of her projects initiated at CSIRO. Look out for her publication on the toxicity of barium to groundwater cyclopoids, and a follow up publication describing a groundwater quality guideline value for barium, with Kitty McKnight (MU), David Spadaro, Monique Binet, Stu Simpson, Grant Hose (MU) and Steve Fenton (Chevron). Merrin is also revising the ammonia water quality guideline for freshwaters following public consultation by Commonwealth DCCEEW and continues to enjoy working with students. She is currently assisting Alex Bastick (CSU) to investigate the effect of radiation on marine microalgae with Tom Cresswell (ANSTO), Francesca Gissi (ANSTO), Darren Koppel (AIMS) and Jess Tout-Lyon (CSU). Merrin can be contacted at merrin.adams@environment.nsw.gov.au.
Brad Angel and Josh King have relocated to purpose-built NATA-accredited laboratories at the CSIRO Environment Black Mountain site at Canberra. They join the Ecosurveillance Systems team led by David Beale which is part of the Healthy Communities Group led by Stuart Simpson. Their work utilises much of the analytical capability previously located at the Lucas Heights laboratories, with a research focus on improvements to environmental management processes at mining and industry sites to better protect ecosystems. They specialise in the measurement of inorganic contaminants (e.g. mercury) at ultratrace concentrations in complex matrices, including factors affecting speciation to evaluate bioavailability. The future science strategy of the team involves growth in critical minerals exploration and processing, waste recycling/ beneficiation, circular economy / decommissioning domains. Being part of a larger CSIRO site and the close proximity to the ANU and University of Canberra means it is “onwards and upwards” following the relocation from Lucas Heights.
Graeme Batley is now an Honorary Fellow with CSIRO Environment, interacting with Brad Angel, Lisa Golding, Stuart Simpson and Monique Binet. With the loss of an office at Lucas Heights (except for a hot desk at CSIRO Mineral Resources there), he is largely working from home. Guideline activities remain a priority, with updating of revised guidelines and an involvement in the transition from Burrlioz to ssdtools. Project activities include work for Sydney Water on sewer overflows and plans for river releases of RO-treated water, for NiPERA on chromium risk assessment studies (with Jenny), and for Esso on Bass Strait oil pipeline decommissioning. With Monique Binet, he is looking at guidelines for antimicrobial resistance. He is still churning out journal publications and is busy on these activities most days. He was awarded the Founders Award 2024 which is SETAC’s most prestigious award for his outstanding contributions to science over the more than 40 years that he was with CSIRO at Lucas Heights. Graeme has been instrumental in raising the profile of SETAC and its outreach in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. He was the Foundation President of SETAC Asia-Pacific from 1997–2003, served on the SETAC Asia Pacific Board until 2011, and has served on many SETAC committees including on the IEAM editorial board, the Global Awards Committee and conference organizing committees. In recognition of his tireless work for SETAC over many decades, in 2016 he was awarded the SETAC Asia-Pacific Lifetime Achievement Award and received the SETAC Presidential Citation for Exemplary Service. All these activities demonstrate his strong commitment to volunteerism and professional service, which he has instilled in all his staff and students. Please read here for the tribute written by Jenny Stauber.
Monique Binet has joined the Minimising Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Mission, as Senior Project Manager. Co-developed by CSIRO and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; and the Department of Health and Aged Care, this One Health initiative aims to halt the rising death rate and economic burden of antimicrobial resistance by 2030. In addition to managing projects across human, animal and environment sectors, Monique’s building projects that prevent the spread and emergence of AMR in the aquatic environment due to wastewater impacts, connecting CSIRO’s ecotoxicology, wastewater and water quality experts (including but not limited to Anu Kumar, Stu Simpson, Jenny Stauber, Graeme Batley, Mike Williams, Pascal Craw, Warish Ahmed, Leah Clarke and Laura Baseggio) with human and/or animal health researchers and Industry (e.g., through SAAFE CRC). Monique attended the Environmental Dimensions of AMR (EDAR7) conference in Montreal in May, where she connected with researchers, regulators and industry representatives who have been driving the environmental AMR agenda internationally for the last decade, to help inform Mission activities and collaborations in the environment space. Current environment-relevant projects include: integrated water quality guidelines that consider AMR and environmental impact; sensing, detecting and removing antimicrobials from wastewaters; modelling AMR risks from hospital and municipal wastewater; contribution of adult hygiene products to AMR from an environmental perspective; developing a decision framework to assess wastewater treatments for removal of antibiotic residues and AMR pathogens. For any further information, feel free to connect with Monique at monique.binet@csiro.au.
Lisa Golding (lisa.golding@csiro.au) has relocated to the CSIRO Environment Brisbane site in the Ecosciences Precinct at Dutton Park. She is part of the Ecosurveillance Systems team led by David Beale which is part of the Healthy Communities Group led by Stuart Simpson. Our research focus is developing systems to detect and quantify risks of adverse effects of contaminants and pathogens to communities and ecosystems. Lisa has been finalising site-specific guidelines for protecting Norfolk Island’s coral reefs from nutrient impacts related to surface water and submarine groundwater discharges. She has been consulting with stakeholder groups for developing a causal network risk assessment for national hydrogen production in three renewable energy zones. Lisa has also been providing expert scientific advice as part of a panel on an ambitious project by a multi-disciplinary team of economists, ecotoxicologists and risk assessors (eftec, UKCEH and WCA). The team is conducting research into measuring and valuing the environmental impacts of chemical pollution in the UK. While the framework is designed for use by Defra, it has implications for the management of chemicals internationally.
Stuart Simpson relocated to Brisbane (CSIRO at Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park). After 6 months, his family are now enjoying the new city. Concurrent with the Sydney site exit was a restructure of the Industry Environments (IE) program (within CSIRO Environment), and that led to Stuart being appointed the leader of the new Healthy Communities Group within IE. This group, of almost 60, includes three teams: (i) EcoSurveillance Systems {develops systems to detect and quantify risks of adverse effects of contaminants and pathogens to communities and ecosystems}, (ii) Green Resource Recovery {develops pathways to recover metal resources and reduce environment footprint from resource extraction and consumption} and (iii) Waste Beneficiation & Storage {develops environmentally safe approaches for storage and repurposing of waste streams to minimise pollution and increase the beneficial reuse and circularity of resources}. Consequently, there is plenty of great science to help develop and new challenges for Stu in leading science for impact in areas he has minimal domain expertise. Stu has a strong personal interest in extending CSIRO biosurveillance capabilities and developing applications and positive management outcomes for a broader range of wastes (pathogens in the environment). His interest in the chemical-bioavailability-exposure-adverse effects area remains strong, and increasing for ResourceQWasteNResource.
David Spadaro (David.spadaro@csiro.au) is project manager and science communicator for the CSIRO microbiomes research group. This group uses multi-omic techniques to understand the structure and function of microbial communities and aims to develop targeted interventions to benefit our food, health or environment. A key area of this research is using microbes to degrade PFAS and plastics in the environment (within Stuart Simpson’s group). David is also the research data co-ordinator for the agriculture and food research unit within CSIRO. He assists this group find digital solutions to enhance science outcomes. He is currently the project manager of the Data School, a 13-week intensive digital course for researchers that teaches coding/programming skills as well as how to make the most of digital infrastructure.
Jenny Stauber has continued as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Genetics and Environment at La Trobe University, where she is co-supervising Sarah Green and involved in research projects to implement bioavailability-based guidelines for metals with Aleicia Holland, Jenni Gadd, Rick van Dam and Graham Merrington’s team at WCA, UK. She is also on a range of advisory committees for government and industry covering reef water quality, unconventional gas, mining, environmental health, risk assessment, contaminant guidelines, recreational water quality and hazardous industrial chemicals. She is continuing as a consultant on various research projects for the international Metals Environment Research Associations (MERA) and is assisting Monique Binet and CRC SAAFE to develop a new framework for antimicrobial resistance guidelines for the environment. Her new e mail is: jenny.stauber@outlook.com.
Since relocating to Hobart, Sarah Stephenson (sarah.stephenson@csiro.au) has become a Team Leader of the Coastal Vegetation and Food Webs Team as part of the Coastal and Oceanic Systems Program in CSIRO. Sarah recently started a HDR PhD program with Dr Ryan Turner at UQ and Dr Sharon Hook CSIRO as part of the Reef Catchments partnership at UQ. The focus of the PhD thesis is investigating integrating eDNA monitoring into the Reef catchments monitoring reporting. The main question of the thesis is: Can eDNA provide ecologically relevant data for indicator metrics of water quality in the GBR catchment context?
Much laughter amongst friends and colleagues of the CSIRO Lucas Heights team as we celebrate past and present achievements.
Jason Van De Merwe South QLD Regional Representative
mikaela.nordborg@my.jcu.edu.au j.vandemerwe@griffith.edu.au
Up here in the far north we are finally enjoying some cooler weather after what seemed like a very long wet season (and still having some unexpected rain!). Things have been quiet in terms of SETAC AU social events as most of our members have been busy with fieldwork and laboratory experiments. However, I am hoping to organise a small get together in Townsville in the near future, keep an eye out for further info.
TropWATER Ecotox team at JCU
Dr Sarah McDonald (sarah.mcdonald@jcu.edu.au) and Dr Shelley Templeman (shelley.templeman@jcu.edu.au)
With the dry season cooler weather up north we are only just emerging into our ‘quiet time’ of the year. Work during the first part of this year was geared towards dodging cyclones and undertaking environmental monitoring throughout Northern Australia after yet another very wet wet-season.
In March we launched our post-wet fieldwork - Sarah McDonald and Stuart Ballantyne headed out to central Queensland and Shelley Templeman was in the NT. Julie Hanley also headed up to the NT to help our ERISS friends with their fieldwork season. Chris Williams has been busy working on investigations and reports, with some local fieldwork here and there. Sarah also assisted on a fieldwork project out at the Australian Defence Force’s Townsville field training area.
Shelley has been running her aquatic environmental monitoring skills short course for groups in Townsville and Cloncurry. She recently got back from Darwin after attending the DNA Barcode needs for the Top End workshop run by Andrew Harford.
In other news, we have had to say goodbye to members of our team! Our PhD student Maddi McKenzie has joined the AIMS marine ecotox group and Stu is living his best FIFO life at Mount Cuthbert copper mine as an Environmental Advisor.
Shelley running her short course in aquatic environmental monitoring skills.
Outback sunrises during fieldwork
Exploring the spinifex hill tops out past Mount Isa.
ARITOX Research Group, Griffith University
The ARI-TOX group at Griffith University has had another busy year. Frederic Leusch, Jason van de Merwe, Peta Neale, Kimberly Finlayson and Matt Johnson have been wrapping up 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. Check out their recent publication on adapting and applying cell-based bioassays to whole-water samples. Jason van de Merwe and Kimberly Finlayson have been applying their marine turtle cell-based toxicity bioassays to assess sea turtle health in the Port of Townsville in relation to their channel upgrade project, and in Hervey Bay with the Queensland Department of Environment and Science in response to the major flooding event at the beginning of 2022. Arthur Barraza recently graduated to Dr Arthur Barraza, and is now working on the Hervey Bay project with the team. Arthur and Jason were also in the news towards the end of the year, as the media showed interest in Arthur’s PhD paper on the possible impacts of chemical pollution on sex determination in sea turtles. Hsuan-Cheng Lu was also awarded his PhD recently, and received the Griffith University Award for Excellence in a Research Thesis!
Chantal Lanctot was awarded $488,648 from the ARC to determine the ecological impacts of chemicals used to control bushfires, providing scientific evidence needed to manage the safe use of firefighting chemicals around water catchments. The news was published in Cosmos Magazine. She also recently published her research on cadmium bioaccumulation dynamics during amphibian metamorphosis in collaboration with Paul Callaghan and Tom Cresswell from ANSTO in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.
Shima Ziajahromi was awarded a SETAC AU Science Meets Parliament award to attend the event, where she had the pleasure of discussing the importance of microplastics research in Australia. Shima also presented a keynote speech at the 1st Nano&Microplastic Australian Conference in March.
Earlier this year, Professor Kelly Munkittrick, CAIP Research Chair in Aquatic Ecosystem Health at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada joined us to present a fantastic seminar on the use of environmental effects monitoring programs to drive integrated watershed management and assessment as part of the ARI Seminar Series.
A big group of ARI-TOX researchers attended the SETAC-AU conference in Townsville (see photos below…we even hang out with non-Queenslanders sometimes), presenting a range of research, including marine wildlife cell-based toxicology, applications of cell-based bioassays, fate and effects of microplastics, and impacts of bushfire fighting chemicals on frogs. It was a great week of science and socialising.
Professor Kelly Munkittrick presents on the use of environmental effects monitoring programs to drive integrated watershed management and assessment as part of the Australian Rivers Institute Seminar Series
Shima with Dr Cathy Foley at Science Meets Parliament 2024
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
It's been an exciting and productive period for the AQUEST group. We are thrilled to announce that two of our PhD students, Pulasthi Serasinghe and Georgia Sinclair, have had their theses accepted. Congratulations on this fantastic achievement! Two of our leading researchers, Dr. Claudette Kellar and Dr. Jackie Myers, have been awarded the RMIT School of Science Early Career Researcher Award for their outstanding performance in 2023. Claudette was busy conducting research at Armstrong’s Creek, hence hasn't yet received her physical award. Kudos to both for their hard-earned recognition!
We have dived into our new Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership (A3P) projects, engaging in literature reviews and setting project directions. Our team has been actively presenting at conferences like SETAC EU, sharing our research with a broader audience. With fieldwork for major projects like Sediment Quality Monitoring now complete, we continue to support our PhD and Masters candidates, third-year student projects, and Year 10 work experience students, fostering collaborative learning and impactful outcomes.
On June 18, 2024, the Port Phillip Bay EcoCentre hosted a seminar titled "Below the Surface: What a Micro-Pollutant Study Reveals About Bay Health," presented by AQUEST’s own Dr. Jackie Myers and Dr. Morgan Ellis from Deakin University. Funded by the Victorian State Government, the event attracted 64 attendees and sparked engaging discussions. The webinar is available on our website for those who missed it. Congratulations to Jackie, Morgan, and the EcoCentre team for a fantastic presentation!
SETAC EU 2024 Conference
PhD candidates Tanya Paige and Pulasthi Serasinghe presented their work at the SETAC EU conference in Seville, Spain. Prof. Vin Pettigrove joined them, also visiting PhD candidate Caterina Cacciatori at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Italy and RMIT's European campus in Barcelona. This trip facilitated a valuable exchange of knowledge and strengthened our collaborative networks.
Student project highlights
Congratulations to Pulasthi Serasinghe for completing his PhD thesis titled "Advancing Detection Strategies for Emerging Pesticides in Surface Waters." Supervised by Vincent Pettigrove, Dayanthi Nugegoda, Saman Buddhadhasa, and Hao Nguyen, Pulasthi has published two papers and presented his work internationally. This milestone is a significant achievement for both Pulasthi and the group. He is now employed by AQUEST.
Further congratulations to Georgia Sinclair, who has also completed her PhD thesis under the supervision of Oliver Jones and Sara Long. Georgia's research focused on PFAS and their effects on aquatic ecosystems, resulting in 10 publications (9 papers and 1 book chapter). She has presented her work at numerous conferences and to the Heads of EPA AU and NZ. Georgia has recently secured a postdoctoral position with CSIRO in Brisbane, where she will study PFAS in turtles.
Ongoing Research and New Additions
We also hosted Year 10 work experience students, who enjoyed hands-on lab, field, and office work. Fieldwork remains a favourite, with laboratory work a close second.
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.
See our website for more publications, technical reports and project information: http:rmit.edu.au/aquest
Pulasthi Serasinghe, Tanya Paige and Vincent Pettigrove enjoy the sights in Seville 2024
Michael Clark was with Sara Long and a work experience student collecting water quality samples at Seaford Wetland.
L-R: Dr Claudette Kellar and Dr Jackie Myers with jackie’s Award
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University – Professor Bob Wong (bob.wong@monash.edu, bobwonglab.org, @BBM_Wong)
The first half of 2024 has been a busy time for overseas travel among members of the Behavioural Ecology Research Group. PhD students Shiho Ozeki and Raiko Rafeeq both attended the SETAC Europe Conference in Seville, Spain, while PhD student Gabriela Melo and Research Associate Dr Upama Aich represented the lab at the Sexual Selection in a Changing World workshop in Erice, Italy. All four lab members delivered presentations on their research uncovering the impacts of pharmaceutical pollutants on fish behaviour, ecology and life-history. Shiho and Raiko then headed to Sweden to join fellow PhD students Jack Manera and Elly Moore, and undergraduate intern Jason Beynon Frankhauser, as part of a behavioural ecotoxicology collaboration with colleagues from Stockholm University (Prof John Fitzpatrick and Prof Niclas Kolm) and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (A/Prof Michael Bertram).
In other news, PhD student Shiho Ozeki was shortlisted for the prestigious Allee Award for Best Student Paper and will be delivering a presentation about her work on the impacts of EE2 on weedfish at the upcoming Animal Behaviour Society Conference in London, Canada. We also wish to congratulate Lab alumnus A/Prof Michael Bertram, who recently received the Royal Skyttean Society of Sweden's prize for outstanding young researchers in natural sciences and technology. A recent paper led by Michael, and published in the prestigious Nature Sustainability, has also attracted widespread global press coverage, including media interviews on BBC World News. That paper, co-authored with 16 other leaders in the field, highlights the urgent need to design greener pharmaceuticals that maintain efficacy but also minimise environmental impacts. Finally, with less than 100 days to go, Bob has been busy preparing for the 19th International Society for Behavioural Ecology (ISBE) Congress in Melbourne in his role as Chair of the Local Organising Committee (see isbe2024.com for further details). This will be only the third time that the ISBE Congress has been held in Australia (and the first time in Melbourne) in that Society’s 38 year history.
Recent relevant publications (lab affiliated members in bold; # denotes joint first authors; * denotes joint senior authors)
Brodin, T.#, Bertram, M.G.#, Arnold, K., Boxall, A.B.A., Brooks, B.W., Cerveny, D., Jörg, M., Kidd, K.A., Lertxundi, U., Martin, J.M., May, L.T., McCallum, E.S., Michelangeli, M., Tyler, C.R., Wong, B.B.M., Kümmerer, K.*, Orive, G*. 2024. The urgent need for designing greener drugs. Nature Sustainabilty. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01374-y
Orford, J.T., Hung, H., Martin, J.M.*, Alton, L.A.*, Wong, B.B.M.* 2024. Impacts of exposure to UV radiation and an agricultural pollutant on morphology and behaviour of tadpoles (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis). Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.5895
Bikker, J. MacDougall-Shackleton, H., Bragg, L.M., Servos, M.R., Wong, B.B.M. Balshine, S. 2024. Impacts of caffeine on fathead minnow behaviour and physiology. Aquatic Toxicology. 273:106982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2024.106982
Berger-Tal, O.#, Wong, B.B.M.#, Adams, C.A., Blumstein, D.T., Candolin, U., Gibson, M.J., Greggor, A.L., Lagisz, M., Macura, B., Price, C.J., Putman, B.J., Snijders, L., Nakagawa, S. 2024. Leveraging AI to improve evidence synthesis in conservation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 39: 548-557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.04.007
From Left to Right: Elly Moore, Shiho Ozeki, Jack Manera, Bob Wong, Jason Beynon Frankhauser and Raiko Rafeeq in Stockholm, Sweden.
Our 23-24 summer field season had a small team working on our ongoing fuel spill remediation sites at Casey station. The team returned earlier this year after another successful season with a range of soil and water samples to be used by the ecotox team back in our Kingston laboratories. Kathryn Brown, Bianca Sfiligoj, Gwil Price and Cath King have since been working on Direct Toxicity Assessments (DTAs) to assess toxicity in biopiles from our remediation site at Casey station. This is being done to compare toxicity across different remediated soils and to provide evidence and recommendations for the reuse of remediated soil on site. DTAs are being conducted with our favourite Antarctic test organism, the nematode Plectus murrayi, as well as bdelloid rotifers that Melanie Borup developed cultures of as part of her PhD. Gwil is also working on developing microalgal tests to add to our suite of terrestrial test species.
PhD candidate Melanie Borup has recently completed her final multiple stressor experiments for her PhD and is now working through an enormous amount of data on the effects of metals and environmental variables on Antarctic rotifers. She has recently submitted the first of her manuscripts from her PhD and is enjoying this next phase of analysis, modelling and writing up of her research.
PhD candidate Jordan Vink, co-supervised by Belinda Ferrari at UNSW continues her research on the development of Antarctic fungi toxicity tests. Having finished her screening tests, Jordan has identified potential candidates for use as test species and will focus on these over the next 6 months, determining optimal growth conditions and appropriate test conditions and endpoints including enzymatic activity, respiration, and growth inhibition.
With our field season at Casey station now wrapped up and sample analysis underway, we look to planning for the next 24-25 field season where we will have small teams deployed at Casey station for ongoing fuel spill remediation work. It also looks like we will have small teams at Mawson station and in the Bunger Hills for environmental site assessment research under our broader “A Cleaner Antarctica” Program. After several years delay to ACA, it will be a relief to get this program underway with a dedicated team and field program. Stay tuned!
julia.jasonsmith@murrang.com.au
Office of the Supervising Scientist
The Water and Sediment quality team at eriss have just completed our annual biomonitoring fieldwork season which occurs annually at the end of the wet season. Over a six week period invertebrates and fish were surveyed using very different techniques (invertebrates using manual sampling methods and fish using videography) but as you can see from the photos the backdrop for both sets of fieldwork is incredible and is a huge upside to this hot, tiring fieldwork. We were fortunate to be joined by some local Djurrubu rangers who were trained in our water chemistry sampling techniques in the field. Samples of water lilys were also taken for another project looking at PFAS levels in bush tucker in Kakadu National Park.
Gissi collecting a water lily for PFAS sampling
L: Creek crossing on the way to one of the macroinvertebrate sampling sites. R: Seiving collected samples to remove invertebrate assemblage.
Launching the boat used to deploy fish cameras using the Argo\
We have also been assisting CDM Smith, along side ESA, with some cladocera and snail testing as part of some work being on the legacy copper mine site Sandy Flat.
The SA branch of SETAC AU held a farewell event celebrating life and career of Dr. Rai Kookana in February 2024. This regional get-together event was well attended by members who relished the opportunity to ask Rai about his career highlights and secrets for success. Rai attributed his career success to the invaluable support of his wife Bimla Kookana and collaboration opportunities.
Fig. 1. Rai speaking at his farewell at the West Oak hotel on the 7th of February, 2024
Fig. 2: SA members gather around to say farewell and celebrate the career of Dr. Kookana.
Rai will be remembered for his impactful research on organic chemicals as environmental contaminants, as well as for launching the conference/symposia “What’s in Our Water”.
New publications from SA members include:
https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.4970 .
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133948
The WA Branch held a midyear casual drinks catch up at the Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre based at UWA, Friday 28th June – it was a small group but we had a lot of fun chatting about science. Hopefully we can continue to grow this over time, as it’s a wonderful opportunity to meet other people in our field across all of the relevant sectors in Perth.
Our members have reported the following reports, publications and activities:
Rebecca Fisher, David R Fox, and Joe Thorley. Final report of the joint investigation into SSD modelling and ssdtools implementation for the derivation of toxicant guidelines values in Australia and New Zealand. Report prepared for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Environmetrics Australia, Beaumaris, Vic and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Perth, WA. (183 pp).
This report is the end product of a comprehensive suite of investigations undertaken over the last 4.5 years into SSD Modelling with a particular emphasis on updating and improving existing methods and software. Building upon our previous investigations, this final report summarises work undertaken on 8 high priority tasks to address several computational and mathematical/statistical issues with ssdtools V1.0.The report can be downloaded from https://environmetrics-my.sharepoint.com/personal/david_fox_visionanalytix_com/Documents/SSD R&D - Documents/Phase III/Reports/Final_report/Revision/Final Report_revised_May_16_2024_clean.
Jodi J.L. Rowley, Andrew Symons, Christopher Doyle, Jane Hall, Karrie Rose, Laura Stapp, Damian C. Lettoof. Broad-scale pesticide screening finds anticoagulant rodenticide and legacy pesticides in Australian frogs. Sci Total Environ 2024; 930: 172526. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172526
This paper was a world-first discovery of anticoagulant rodenticides in wild amphibians, as well as legacy pesticide detections. The study was lead by the Australian Museum, NSW DCCEEW, and Damian. They wrote an article for The Conversation We found pesticides in a third of Australian frogs we tested. Did these cause mass deaths? (theconversation.com), and Damian was also interviewed on the radio five times! He is now working with a panel of scientists to help strengthen restrictions of the use of these chemicals within Australia.
Monique Gagnon has travelled to Seville to participate to the SETAC Europe 34th Annual Meeting where she presented a recently completed project on phytoremediation using Azolla. It was realised that ninety percent of current ecotoxicology projects presented at the meeting are focussed on microplastics and tyre wear! Upon return to beautiful Perth, she prepared a field trip to Thailand to initiate a collaboration with Mahidol University where scales of water monitors (photo attached) will inform on levels of contamination by heavy metals in Asian mega-cities. Apart from surviving yet another teaching semester and frantically preparing for next semester, it is life as usual at Curtin University!
Helen Nice from the Ecotoxicology & Ecology Marine Ecosystems Branch of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and team the team Rachel Padden and Michael Kenrick - just completed the first round of sampling for the Global Estuaries Monitoring Program, which is a United Nations project for the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. We sampled the Peel-Harvey Estuary this week and plan to sample in the south coast region next month.
The Global Estuaries Monitoring (GEM) Program aims to develop a global monitoring network to monitor environmental contaminants (e.g., pharmaceutical residues, emerging pollutants of concern, microplastics, pathogens) in major urbanised estuaries worldwide. GEM will facilitate capacity building for monitoring through provision of training for standard sampling and analytical methods. GEM aims to reveal the pollution situation around the globe in estuaries, identify those that require attention and improvement, recommend priority contaminants for control, and promote best practices to combat the pollution problems thereby achieving cleaner estuaries for all.
And here is the link to the site: https://www.globalestuaries.org/about-gem
Tristan Stringer from Intertek Ecotoxicology says they have had a busy first half of the year with lots of interesting projects. They hired a new team member at the beginning of the year, Jack, who is a recent graduate with a specialty in aquariums and animal husbandry and has proven valuable addition to the lab improving our inhouse cultures and aquariums. They have started a few new R&D projects this year as well including work with the tropical copepod Acartia sinjiensis. They have already had success with improving culturing of Acartia sinjiensis and have consistent results for the 48-Hr acute test. They are currently working on improving and validating the 80-Hr chronic test method and hopefully will have the test fully validated and ready for commercial projects by the end of the year. They also have a few other projects that are slowly coming together so it is proving to be an exciting year!
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
SETAC NZ began the year with our first quarterly catch-up where the “magnificent seven” (aka brave volunteers) provided short and sharp presentations about the work that they are currently progressing. Was great to reconnect with everyone and an interesting time had by most!
Our mid-year catch-up featured a special guest star, Dr Jackie Myers (RMIT University, Melbourne, West Island), who gave us an overview of the Aquatic Environmental Stress Research group AQUEST group, who they are and what they do and provided an update of some of the research they are currently undertaking (they are very busy and doing fantastic work!). The presentation was as warmly received as a cup of hot soup on a cold winter’s day! Thanks Jackie!
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 ????
The New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority will be hosting the next SETAC AU in Wellington in 2025. We have assembled a crack-team of people for the organising committee – stay tuned for further details (it is a good time to renew your SETAC AU membership to receive the member’s discount!).
Now, in this issue of Endpoint’s greatest segue, an update from the New Zealand Environmental Protection Authority……….
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA)
The EPA’s toxicologists, environmental fate scientists, and ecotoxicologists continue to work through our hazard substances applications and reassessments programmes.
This article on our website helps to put our work into a global context:
Complex backdrop underpins hazardous substance assessments | EPA
Our technical staff have also taken the opportunity to deliver guest lectures for students at the Victoria University of Wellington. I also had the privilege of delivering a keynote presentation at the International Congress on Marine Corrosion and Fouling on vessel in-water cleaning in Guangzhou, China (The 20th International Congress on Marine Corrosion and Fouling). A very interesting conference and great hosts – there’s a lot of developments in the antifouling coatings space that no doubt have flow-on effects to human health and the environment.
Our staff have also featured in the media -
Dr Chris Hill (General Manager of Hazardous Substances and New Organisms) featured in a new article covering everything from what Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are and how they're used in daily life, to the impact they have on our climate, the global response, and of course what the EPA is doing to reduce their use in Aotearoa New Zealand.
More importantly, Louise McMillan (Team Leader – Hazardous Substances International) starred in the accompanying video.
Taking the heat out of harmful coolants (newsroom.co.nz)
Dr Shaun Presow (Manager – Hazardous Substances Reassessments) featured in a 1news article and video about PFAS in cosmetics and our proposal to ban all PFAS in cosmetic products.
NZ to ban 'forever chemicals' in cosmetics from end of 2026 (1news.co.nz)
Even more special than media appearances, one of our staff (Dr Shelley Stevens) was recently “crowned” with her PhD. Her thesis and associated publications can be found here:
Congrats Dr Shelley! You now join the ranks of “I am not that kind of Doctor” when confronted with an human health emergency ????
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@mpi.govt.nz).
Hazard Evaluation Ltd
Kate Bromfield, CEO and Founder of Hazard Evaluation, a NZ company that develops simple software for chemical risk management, is speaking at EUChems in July on how they’re using AI to identify chemicals of emerging concern.
The link to the abstract for her talk is here:
https://www.chemhazel.com/news/using-ai-for-good
For further information, contact Kate here:
https://card.link/items/sOHCEQWMKz9/?exchange=true
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research and the Cawthron Institute
Workshop of stormwater management in Napier
Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research and the Cawthron Institute coordinated the wrap up workshop of the NZ Royal Society Catalyst project “Novel biological and chemical methods to identify stormwater pollutants” in Napier on 20 May 2024. The project built on collaboration with Dr Daisuke Nakajima’s team at the National Institute of Environmental Studies (NIES) in Japan. The 2-year project introduced the use of automated identification and quantification system (AIQS-GC) methods to analyse a wide range of chemical contaminants in complex mixtures like stormwater runoffs. The project also used a bioassay/chemical analysis approach to assess the toxicity of sediment displaced by the devastating Cyclone Gabrielle. The project involved a partnership with Mana Ahuriri Trust, Napier City Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council to contribute to their on-going efforts to remediate the Ahuriri Estuary which is under pressure from a range of sources of stressors. During their visit, the NIES collaborators met with the project partners and even took the opportunity to take water samples in the Pandora Industrial estate which is adjacent to Ahuriri. The results of the research to date were presented at the workshop and discussed with the 30 participants representing Māori, councils, community groups and scientists. Future research and knowledge gaps were identified now that solid partnerships have been consolidated.
Group photo of the workshop participants.
Grant Northcott from the research team collecting water sample in the Pandora catchment for further analysis by the NIES collaborators in Japan.