Acquisition of Instruments for Environmental Science Laboratory

一笔赠款已授予杰森·W博士。玛丽蒙特大学的凯尔西购买了一台HPLC化学工作站和一台Protector通风柜。 该设备将用于研究土壤老化有机污染物的生物利用度和毒性。 该研究的重要组成部分是检测和提取暴露于受污染土壤的土壤和生物体中的化合物。 高效液相色谱法（HPLC）用于玛丽蒙特环境科学实验室，以定量从土壤中回收该化合物以及生物吸收。 Chemstation将大大增强HPLC数据的分析。 目前，数据通过积分器打印在纸上，使得复杂的分析变得困难。 通风橱将允许对各种难以处理的挥发性有机污染物进行处理。 环境科学实验室没有通风橱，使得挥发性化合物的研究变得困难和危险。 该设备还将用于综合高级环境实验室的教学，在该课程中，高年级生物学本科生将学习实验环境科学中使用的一些分析技术，将评估石油成分菲和广泛使用的除草剂阿特拉津对蚯蚓和海龟卵的生物利用度。 感兴趣的是物种差异对土壤老化污染物生物利用度的影响。 无菌土壤样品将用菲或阿特拉津进行改良，并允许老化预定的天数。 实验将被设计为产生其中化合物已经老化不同时间长度的样品（例如，120、60、30和0天）。 将微生物添加到样品中，然后提取以确定化合物的组织浓度。 将提取平行样品以确认未改变的母体化合物（即，添加的菲或莠去津）在老化后存在于土壤中。 提取物将使用高效液相色谱法（使用Chemstation）进行分析，以量化土壤中的吸收和回收。这项工作对于准确评估土壤中污染物的风险非常重要。 尽管研究者和其他人报告的数据表明，许多污染物随着在土壤中的老化而逐渐变得不容易被吸收，但对污染场地风险的估计通常是基于存在于土壤中的化合物的总量（即，可从土壤中提取，而不是生物可用性。 因此，与土壤中特定污染物相关的风险往往被高估。 这种对风险的不正确计算可能导致资源的错误使用，以达到不切实际和可能不必要的清理目标。 此外，污染程度最高的地点可能不是对人类和生态受体风险最高的地点。 以适当反映生物利用度的方式对环境和人类健康风险进行分级的接触评估将导致更准确的风险评估，并最终导致更有效地分配有限的财政和自然资源。 有关物种差异的信息将改善对土壤中污染物风险的预测，并进一步了解影响生物利用度的因素。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Jason W. Kelsey at Marymount University to purchase an HPLC Chemstation and a Protector fume hood. The equipment will be used to study the bioavailability and toxicity of soil-aged organic pollutants. Important components of the research are the detection and extraction of compounds from soil and organisms that have been exposed to contaminated soil. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is used in the Marymount environmental science laboratory to quantify both recovery of the compound from soil as well as biological uptake. The Chemstation will greatly enhance the analysis of HPLC data. Currently, data are printed onto paper by means of an integrator, making complex analysis difficult. The fume hood will allow work on a wide range of volatile organic pollutants that are otherwise difficult to handle. The absence of a fume hood in the environmental science laboratory makes investigation of volatile compounds difficult and dangerous. The equipment will also be used in the teaching of Integrated Advanced Environmental Laboratory, a course in which upper-division biology undergraduates learn a number of analytical techniques used in experimental environmental science.The bioavailability of phenanthrene, a constituent of petroleum, and atrazine, a widely used herbicide, to earthworms and turtle eggs will be assessed. Of interest is the effect of species differences on the bioavailability of soil-aged pollutants. Sterile soil samples will be amended with phenanthrene or atrazine and allowed to age for a predetermined number of days. The experiments will be designed to yield samples in which the compounds have been aged for different lengths of time (e.g., 120, 60, 30, and 0 days). Organisms will be added to the samples and then extracted to determine the tissue concentration of the compounds. Parallel samples will be extracted to confirm that the unaltered parent compounds (i.e., the added phenanthrene or atrazine) are present in the soil after aging. Extracts will be analyzed using HPLC (with the Chemstation) to quantify uptake and recovery from soil.This work is important for the accurate assessment of the risk of pollutants in soil. Although data reported by the investigator and others demonstrate that many contaminants become progressively less available for uptake as they are aged in soil, estimations of risk of polluted sites are typically based on the total amount of compound present in (i.e., extractable from) soil and not biological availability. Consequently, the risk associated with a particular contaminant in soil is frequently overestimated. This incorrect calculation of risk could lead to the misdirection of resources in an attempt to meet unrealistic and possibly unnecessary clean-up goals. In addition, sites with the highest levels of contamination may not be the sites of highest risk to human and ecological receptors. Exposure assessments that rank environmental and human health risks in a way that appropriately reflects bioavailability will lead to more accurate risk assessments and, ultimately, to more efficient allocation of limited financial and natural resources. Information about species differences will improve predictions of the risk of pollutants in soils as well as further our understanding of the factors that influence bioavailability.