Ecotoxicology
Human civilizations have always been drawn to rivers, deltas, and estuaries to take advantage of the many amenities associated with these ecosystems. While we depend on natural resources from rivers, we simultaneously release municipal, factory and mining wastes into their waters. With dispersal of these materials downstream, releases of contaminants to rivers can have far-reaching ecological consequences. As pressures from industrial development, urban sprawl, agriculture and mineral extraction continue, so will the hazardous byproducts of these activities. Monitoring, quantifying, and managing the risks of xenobiotics in aquatic and estuarine systems present technical challenges to organizations from local communities to international regulatory bodies.
Photo credit: Sergey Gabdurakhmanov
How We Can Help
10,000 Years Institute staff combine expertise in toxicology with understanding of ecosystem dynamics to investigate and predict effects of anthropogenic contaminants on aquatic and estuarine systems and their inhabitants.
Project Examples
Investigating ecological risk on the Selenga River and its watershed, a major tributary to Lake Baikal in Russia. Research projects have included reconnaissance surveys of contamination in fish and sediments from Lake Baikal.
Synthesizing information about toxicological risks to the Puget Sound killer whale population in support of a petition to the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the whales as an endangered species.
Information mining and synthesis to describe how municipalities are assessing effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products and endocrine disrupting compounds in municipal wastewater on receiving environments.