Creating tools to predict the ecological mechanisms of stressor effect and recovery in freshwater systems.

加拿大的淡水资源可能受到人类活动对景观造成的各种污染物（化学和生物）的损害。这些包括杀虫剂，人类和兽医使用的药物，营养素，以及我们最近了解到的携带抗虫基因（ARG）的生物体。这些压力源可能对人类健康和生态结构和功能构成重大风险。这些污染物进入地表沃茨的两个最常见的来源是城市废水排放和一般农业;这两种活动在可预见的将来不会停止。因此，我们需要了解和预测这些污染物如何影响水质，并探索缓解其释放和影响的解决方案。我实验室的长期研究目标是了解化学和非化学胁迫物引起水生生态系统变化的生态机制。通过这一发现，我们将调查浮游动物和底栖无脊椎动物在通过放牧压力从环境中去除不需要的抗生素耐药性生物，特别是来自废水和农业投入的生物中的作用，以及初级生产者，营养素和杀虫剂对这种关系的影响。一种新的工具（蜕皮酶，壳聚糖酶）将用于预测无脊椎动物的结构（丰度和生物量）和功能（即，阿根廷放牧），作为一种手段，以评估围绕这一生态服务和次级生产的系统的地位。通过定义和理解毒性和恢复潜力的生态机制（并创建测量和预测这些变化的工具，即，生物标志物的影响），我们可以权衡证据，以确定是否有一个压力源具有显着的生物效应。这项工作对使用处理湿地在泻湖中处理抛光废水具有影响，特别是在当地生态适当的情况下，即，在加拿大大草原，农村污水的被动处理是常态，全球许多地区都是如此。具体而言，它将直接告知人工湿地的设计特点和管理方法，与ARG的衰减有关。因此，这项工作将有助于改善地表水质量，减少人类和生态风险，并更好地了解这些系统的生态和服务。

Freshwater resources in Canada can be impaired by any number of contaminants (chemical and biological) as a result of human activities on the landscape. These include pesticides, human and veterinary-use pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and as we are recently learning, organisms bearing antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs). These stressors can pose significant risks to both human health and ecological structure and function. The two most common sources of these contaminants to surface waters are release of municipal wastewater effluent and agriculture in general; two activities that will not cease in the foreseeable future. Therefore, we need to understand and predict how these contaminants can impact water quality, and explore solutions to mitigate their release and effects. My laboratory’s long-term research objective is to understand the ecological mechanisms by which chemical and non-chemical stressors can induce change(s) in aquatic ecosystems. With this Discovery, we will investigate the role of zooplankton and benthic invertebrates in removing undesirable antibiotic resistance-bearing organisms, especially those from wastewater and agricultural inputs, from the environment via grazing pressure, and the influence of primary producers, nutrients, and pesticides on this relationship. A new tool (the molting enzyme, chitobiase) will be used in attempts to predict invertebrate structure (abundance and biomass) and function (i.e., ARG grazing), as a means by which to assess the status of systems around this ecological service and secondary production in general. By defining and understanding ecological mechanisms of toxicity and potential for recovery (and creating tools to measure and predict these changes, i.e., biomarkers of effect), we can weigh the evidence to determine whether a stressor is having a significant biological effect. The work has implications for the use of treatment wetlands for polishing wastewater treated in lagoons, particularly those under a local, ecologically appropriate context, i.e., the Canadian Prairies, where passive treatment of rural sewage is the norm, as it is in many regions globally. Specifically, it will directly inform design features and management approaches in constructed wetlands as related to attenuation of ARGs. Thus, this work will contribute to improving surface water quality, reducing human and ecological risks, and a better understanding of the ecology and services of these systems.