Ecological implications of complex mixtures of contaminants in aquatic habitats

在人类世，人类活动正以一系列没有天然类似物的压力源（如合成化学品、快速气候变化）挑战水生生态系统。这些压力源有可能从根本上改变生物系统的各个层次的组织，包括个人，群体和社区。在我的研究中，我进行自然和操纵实验，以了解人为压力源对自然系统的有机和生态影响。理解和预测这些压力源的影响是现代生态学中一个关键的突出挑战。我使用生态学，生态毒理学，保护科学，生理学，分子生物学和环境化学的工具来研究水生栖息地中人为压力源的复杂混合物的影响。******具体来说，我的研究重点是微塑料作为一种新的模型系统，用于研究多种应激源的协同生物影响。微塑料可以作为物理压力源，这是由于颗粒本身的物理影响，以及化学压力源，这是由于在制造过程中添加的天然化学物质以及从周围的水中积累在这些颗粒上的化学物质。我的研究贡献已经建立了关于微塑料的命运、暴露和有机影响的基本知识，并确定了我们对这些污染物的生态理解中的空白，表明我们对微塑料如何影响人口、社区和生态系统知之甚少。在NSERC的资助下，我的研究项目将继续使用微塑料作为模型系统，以回答有关微塑料如何单独或与气候变化相关的压力源结合，改变当地和全球生态系统的过程的基本问题。******微塑料已经成为全球和加拿大关注的污染物，在劳伦森五大湖中它们尤其丰富。我的实验室将提供关于微塑料及其相关化学污染物对生态系统的影响的重要信息，无论是在当前条件下，还是在反映预测的未来气候情景的改变的热化学环境下。我的研究项目将使用实验室和实地研究来衡量微塑料对个体动物、种群和社区的影响，这些信息对于填补现有的知识空白和告知管理决策至关重要。为了确保我实验室的研究能够被实践者使用，我正在指导和培训一群不同的学生和博士后，使他们成为有效的沟通者和领导者。这些技能不仅为学生准备了多样化的工作（例如，政府，非政府组织，学术），而且还增加了我们科学的可见性和可及性。*****

In the Anthropocene, human activities are challenging aquatic ecosystems with a combination of stressors that have no natural analogue (e.g., synthetic chemicals, rapid climate change). Such stressors have the potential to fundamentally alter biotic systems at all levels of organization, including individuals, populations, and communities. In my research, I conduct natural and manipulative experiments to understand the organismal and ecological effects that anthropogenic stressors can have on natural systems. Understanding and predicting the impacts of these stressors is a key outstanding challenge in modern ecology. I use tools from ecology, ecotoxicology, conservation science, physiology, molecular biology and environmental chemistry to investigate the effects of a complex mixture of anthropogenic stressors in aquatic habitats. ******Specifically, my research focuses on microplastics as a novel model system for studying the synergistic biological impacts of multiple stressors. Microplastics can act as physical stressors, due to physical impacts of the particles themselves, and chemical stressors, due to both innate chemicals added during manufacturing as well as chemicals that accumulate on these particles from surrounding water. My research contributions have established basic knowledge about fate, exposure and organismal impacts of microplastics and have identified gaps in our ecological understanding of these contaminants, demonstrating that there is little knowledge of how microplastics affect populations, communities, and ecosystems. With NSERC funding, my research program will continue to use microplastics as a model system to answer fundamental questions regarding processes that contribute to how microplastics, alone and in combination with stressors related to climate change, alter ecosystems locally and globally. ******Microplastics have become a contaminant of concern globally and in Canada, where they are particularly abundant across the Laurentian Great Lakes. My laboratory will contribute vital information about the consequences of microplastics and their associated chemical contaminants for ecosystems, both under present conditions as well as under altered thermal and chemical environments that reflect projected future climate scenarios. My research program will use laboratory and field studies to measure how microplastics impact individual animals, populations, and communitiesinformation that is critical to fill existing knowledge gaps and to inform management decisions. To ensure that research from my lab is accessible to practitioners, I am mentoring and training a diverse group of students and postdocs to be effective communicators and leaders. These skills not only prepare students for a diversity of jobs (e.g., government, NGO, academic), but also increase the visibility and accessibility of our science.*****