2008 Woodie Awards
Lecture on contaminants
Sejal Patel
Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News
On March 28, Prof. Jules Blais from Ottawa University gave a seminar about biologically mediated transport of contaminants to the aquatic systems. There is considerable interest in understanding the movement of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) around the globe, given that POPs are transported to regions where they were never used or produced.
According to Blais, the long-range transport of semivolatile contaminants is not only conducted by physical systems such as wind and water, but animals such as birds and fish also play big roll in it. In many circumstances, gregarious animals magnify and accumulate certain contaminants and then migrate and congregate, which can become the predominant pathway for contaminants. Biovector transport exhibits three crucial stages: collection, transportation, and deposition of the contaminant. Blais developed a simple model for biovector transport, given the context of other contaminant transporting processes.
In his presentation, he provided selected examples where migratory animals have affected contaminants in receptor locations. For example, adult sockeye salmon accumulate more than 95% of their biomass in the ocean and return this biomass to freshwaters when they spawn and die. This movement transports salmon-derived contaminants between freshwater and oceanic foodwebs. Arctic seabirds also engage in biovector transportation: biologists have observed increased contaminant concentrations in these birds, which transport significant quantities of marine-derived contaminants from the ocean to terrestrial sites with their guano. This approach shows that biovector transport occurs over surprisingly large ranges in distance, from meters to thousands of kilometers.
According to Blais, the long-range transport of semivolatile contaminants is not only conducted by physical systems such as wind and water, but animals such as birds and fish also play big roll in it. In many circumstances, gregarious animals magnify and accumulate certain contaminants and then migrate and congregate, which can become the predominant pathway for contaminants. Biovector transport exhibits three crucial stages: collection, transportation, and deposition of the contaminant. Blais developed a simple model for biovector transport, given the context of other contaminant transporting processes.
In his presentation, he provided selected examples where migratory animals have affected contaminants in receptor locations. For example, adult sockeye salmon accumulate more than 95% of their biomass in the ocean and return this biomass to freshwaters when they spawn and die. This movement transports salmon-derived contaminants between freshwater and oceanic foodwebs. Arctic seabirds also engage in biovector transportation: biologists have observed increased contaminant concentrations in these birds, which transport significant quantities of marine-derived contaminants from the ocean to terrestrial sites with their guano. This approach shows that biovector transport occurs over surprisingly large ranges in distance, from meters to thousands of kilometers.
Be the first to comment on this story