Multiple stressors in watersheds

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Watersheds are exposed to a variety of contaminants, as well as both natural and anthropogenic stressors that can interact to cause adverse effects in fish and other organisms. Contaminants also normally enter watersheds as complex mixtures, with differing composition and properties that greatly influence their environmental fate, bioavailability and toxicity (ecotoxicology). Our current lack of understanding of these interactions creates considerable uncertainty when assessing environmental risk of various human activities, especially when multiple stressors are considered across watersheds. The current research program is working toward a better understanding of contaminant effects and interactions in watersheds, and the development of predictive cumulative effects frameworks that consider multiple stressors in the context of natural variability. In our past studies it has been shown that municipal wastewaters contain a large variety of chemicals that have the potential to alter physiology, metabolism and endocrine function in fish. In the Grand River watershed, wild rainbow darter (