Biological responses to organic & metal contamination

本项目是评估马萨诸塞州新贝德福德港（NBH）的生态健康，该港口是美国环保署指定的超级基金场地。建立在以前的研究，侧重于NBH沉积物中的金属分布和金属和金属和微生物群落之间的相互作用，我们建议评估生物群中的有机和无机污染物积累。然而，仅仅积累并不能提供生态影响的证据。因此，我们将研究大型生物群对污染物的生理和生化反应，包括对内分泌系统的影响。我们还将继续开发微生物群落的污染物暴露的生物标志物，基于遗传反应的诱导。最终目标是提供一套可用于评估生态系统健康的暴露生物标志物。我们建议整合生态毒理学，分子微生物学和地球化学，发展技术，反映环境污染物和它们的生物利用度高等生物之间的关系。这将通过一系列实验室和实地研究来实现，这些研究旨在确定候选生物标志物，并将其在实地样品中的表达频率与污染物形态（项目9）和生物吸收测量相关联。

This project is evaluate the ecological health of New Bedford Harbor, MA (NBH), an EPA designated Superfund Site. Building on previous research that focused on distribution of metals in NBH sediments and the interactions between metals and metals and microbial communities, we propose to evaluate both organic and inorganic contaminant accumulation in the biota. Accumulation alone, however, does not provide evidence of ecological effect. We will therefore examine physiological and biochemical responses in the macrobiota to pollutants, including effects on their endocrine systems. We will also continue to develop microbial community biomarkers of contaminant exposure, based on induction of genetic responses. The ultimate aim is to provide a suite of exposure biomarkers that can be used to evaluate ecosystem health. We propose to integrate ecotoxicology, molecular microbiology and geochemistry to develop techniques reflecting the relationship between environmental contaminants and their bioavailability to higher organisms. This will be accomplished through a series of laboratory and field studies designed to identify candidate biomarkers and relate their frequency of expression in field samples with contaminant speciation (Project 9) and biological uptake measurements.