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A Multi-Agency Effort for Assessing the Occurrence and Biological Impacts of CECs in Support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Citation:
Ekman, D. A Multi-Agency Effort for Assessing the Occurrence and Biological Impacts of CECs in Support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, November 01 - 05, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at SETAC North America 36th Annual Meeting
Description:
In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the detection of a variety of contaminants for which little is known regarding their potential impact(s) on Great Lakes ecosystems. These contaminants of emerging concern, or CECs, include an assortment of industrial (e.g., flame retardants), agricultural (e.g., pesticides), urban nonpoint source(e.g., plasticizers), and pharmaceutical and personal care products which frequently lack relevant ecotoxicity information. Recognizing this, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Action Plan II has determined that the identification and assessment of the impacts of CECs on fish and wildlife is critical for successfully protecting Great Lakes ecosystems.In response, a large multidisciplinary project has been designed to address this need through the combined efforts of numerous investigators across multiple federal agencies. This integrated team is employing a variety of analytical and biological tools to assess the occurrence and impacts of CECs on surface waters and associated biota across the GreatLakes basin. For example, impacts of various land uses on the occurrence and concentrations of CECs will be evaluated over the course of multiple years to identify trends and inform computational models for predicting CEC concentrations. From a biological standpoint, impacts of exposures to relevant mixtures of CECs is also being evaluated, given that biota are rarely exposed to individual isolated CECs in natural waters. Furthermore, due to the often unknown toxicities associated with these complex mixtures, a diverse collection of targeted (e.g., cell bioassays for detecting estrogenic activity) and untargeted molecular-based tools (e.g., ‘omics and ToxCast™) are being leveraged to provide an assessment of a broad spectrum of biological responses. These and other components of this integrated project will be summarized in this presentation to provide a brief overview of this GLRI effort.
