Fate and developmental effects of oil sands-derived polyaromatic hydrocarbons and naphthenic acids in amphipods and amphibians

毫无疑问，加拿大油砂行业对就业和经济的积极影响。 由于阿尔伯塔和萨斯喀彻温省的天然沥青矿床，加拿大已探明原油储量排名第三，仅次于沙特阿拉伯和委内瑞拉。2012年每天生产约131万桶石油和创造数十万个就业机会的经济效益在这段经济增长有限的时期推动了加拿大的发展。 这对加拿大人来说是个好消息。然而，油砂生产仍然存在争议。 在某些地区，潜在的负面环境影响显而易见。 这可能是由于采矿活动、油砂加工沃茨溢出可能污染水道以及污染物在下游和顺风空中沉积造成的。这引起了政府机构、公民和工业界对监管行动和实施健全、可行和负担得起的风险评估和监测战略的关注。 我们建议开发新的方法，确定与沥青提取相关的污染物的命运和影响。 这是针对环境科学和技术的战略研究领域。我们的团队专注于多环芳烃（PAH）、烷基化多环芳烃（aPAH）、二苯并噻吩（统称为多环芳烃化合物或PAC）和环烷酸（NAs）。油砂中有许多化学物质分类不清，但可能有毒。有些有能力扰乱动物的发育和荷尔蒙系统。我们将对它们进行测量，并提供有关毒性和可持续开发方法的指导方针，以尽量减少影响。 我们专注于水生端足类动物（小型甲壳类动物）和青蛙蝌蚪，以确定暴露途径，因为它们在生态系统中的重要性，因为它们是生物指示物种。我们将开发新的基于生物学的工具，以确定毒性和亚致死的发展和变态的影响。 这些科学成果将通过定期会议和电话会议以及科学和一般出版物传达给我们的工业，政府和社区合作伙伴。 重要的是，在该提案的框架下，研究生和博士后研究人员将与我们的合作伙伴互动，以获得环境科学新兴方法和技术的强化培训，因此将在就业市场上具有很强的竞争力。

There is little doubt about the positive impact of Canada's oil sands industry on jobs and the economy. Because of natural bitumen deposits in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada ranks third in proven crude oil reserves behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The economic benefits from the production of ~1.31 million barrels of oil a day in 2012 and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs has been a boost to Canada during this period of otherwise limited economic growth. This is very good news for Canadians. However, oil sands production remains controversial. Potential negative environmental impacts are evident in some areas. This can result from mining activities, and possible contamination of waterways from spills of the oil sands processed waters, and, downstream and downwind aerial deposition of contaminants. This is raising the concern of government agencies, citizens and industry for regulatory action and implementation of a sound, feasible, and affordable risk assessment and monitoring strategies. We propose to develop novel methodologies that determine the fate and effects of contaminants associated with bitumen extraction. This targets the strategic research area in Environmental Science and Technologies. Our team focuses on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs (aPAHs), dibenzothiophenes (collectively called the polyaromatic compounds or PACs) and naphthenic acids (NAs). There are many of these chemicals from oil sands that are poorly classified, yet are potentially toxic. Some have the ability to upset animal development and hormonal systems. We will measure them, and provide guidelines on toxicity and sustainable methods of exploitations that would minimize impact. We focus on aquatic amphipods (small crustacean) and frog tadpoles to determine pathways of exposure because of their importance in the ecosystem, and because they are bio-indicator species. We will develop novel biologically based tools to determine toxicity and sub-lethal effects on development and metamorphosis. These scientific results will be communicated to our industrial, governmental and community partners though regular meeting and conference calls, in addition to scientific and general publications. Importantly, under the framework of this proposal, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers will interact with our contributing partners to gain intensive training in the emerging methods and technologies in environmental sciences, and therefore will be highly competitive in the job market.