Author Archives: Lilo wang

Salmons near Seattle found high with drugs, and should you be concerned?

Posted on November 13, 2017 | 2 comments

Assuming you are a sushi or seafood lover, will you be shocked if I tell you the salmons near Seattle has found to have of multiple drugs, including cocaine in their tissues? Although you actually don’t need to worry about your health this time, some other effects may still worth concerning.

Salmon. credit: Pexels

A study lasted from 2014 to 2016 has examined the contaminants in three estuaries in Puget Sound near Seattle by collecting both water sample and juvenile Chinook Salmon samples. The scientists found that the juvenile Chinook Salmon’s tissue contains many drugs and other chemicals, including Prozac, Advil, Benadryl, Lipitor, BPA, even cocaine. The estuaries’ water also contains 81 types of drugs, cosmetic products, which are higher than the expected concentrations.

Salmon and water bodies contain the chemical products. Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749116300884

The variety of the compounds inside salmon and water is from multiple factories in the regions producing a wide range of products, including pharmaceutical, personal care products, and current use pesticides. Multiple chemicals then are ejected into the water bodies and the organisms from the discharged water from the factories’ wastewater treatment plants.

Fortunately for us, the concentration of individual compounds in the organisms and water would be too low to affect human health. Also, there are multiple other salmon species to choose, like sockeye salmon, so that people would not need to eat juvenile Chinook salmon.

However, it is estimated that the salmons’ survival rate would be decreased by around 50%. The drugs could inhibit the salmons’ immunity, and make them more susceptible getting diseases and/or make them become less fit. This could also give them a hard time feeling from their predators, and thus increase the salmon population’s death rate.

Also, most of the compounds and products found in salmon tissues are in fact approved to use, or considered as non-toxic, it is quite common for them to be discharged from a wastewater treatment plant. Thus, only a small proportion of the chemicals are monitored or regulated in the estuary environment, while there could be hundreds of other chemicals/products presenting the water and organisms. Therefore, the toxicity effects might have been underestimated, as the “non-toxic compounds” could interact with each other, and increase their overall toxicity to be harmful to humans.

In a word, even though we are being lucky enough not to be affected by the drug-contained salmons this time this time, it is yet unclear about the overall effects of the multi-products-contaminated waterbodies. If we don’t work on to improve the wastewater monitoring and regulation system, maybe the water contamination will eventually affect ourselves.

 

-Lilo Wang

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First Time Ocean Floor Mining in Human History, Now What?

Posted on October 23, 2017 | Leave a comment

Despite our growing need for natural resources, should we still retrieve the resources while we might pay a huge price? In August 2017, the first large-scale seabed mining activity in human history has been approved with a 2-2 vote by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA): the company Trans-Tasman Resources can now mine Iron sand in South Taranaki in New Zealand. Although it will bring more iron ores and job positions, it will certainly bring harmful effects on marine ecosystem and humans, and the severity of the adverse impact on seafloor ecosystem is still unclear.

Map of Seabed Mining Site: Credits: Frances Cook, NewYork Time

Location and Technology

The mining site is over 25 km offshore along the Taranaki coastal-line. Trans-Tasman Resources will remove 5 million tons of iron sand annually for up to 35 years from the around 19 to 42m depth underneath the ocean surface. The total mining area will be 65.76km2, starting from 5km2 in the first year.

They will use an integrated mining/processing vessel attached to a suction crawl. The suction crawl would remove anything on the seedbed including the sea-organisms on the seabed and form a pit hole, then separate the iron ores by depositing other materials including sands and dead organisms into the sea. Then the minerals will be exported onshore directly from the storage ship. The short video below explains the mining technology clearly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=nbOvX8eoOSw

Impacts

Trans-Tasman Resources is consent to have adverse effects on the marine lives or marine environment. During their mining procedure, the entire seabed will be removed, along with the sessile organisms, such as seaweeds. The motile creatures such as fishes and mammals would be affected by habitat loss, as well as the noise and/or electromagnetic radiations. Some mammals might experience negative behavior changes including extreme avoidance of their habitats; some could become less capable fleeing from their predators due to the noise effects, and some will lose their food resources. This would lead to species loss, and eventually biodiversity loss.

Humans health might also be affected by this project eventually. As New Zealand also has a long history of commercial fisheries, people might be harmed from the possible bioaccumulation of heavy metals in their seafood. The toxicity generated from the mining procedure can be eaten and stored by the fishes, and eventually consumed by people. This could possibly damage humans’ organs and/or nervous systems. Since it is still unclear about how far exactly can the pollutions in the mining area span, it would be even more difficult to prevent the health issues in humans.

Now what?

Although we now understand the risks and impacts of the mining project a little bit, unfortunately, it would be almost impossible for us to stop the mining project now, according to the approval agreement. However, as a part of the public, we can still put pressure on the government to allow the scientists monitor this project closely, and develop new regulations for this type of mining activities in future. With more measurements, scientists can then reduce the uncertainty, and manage the environmental impact more adaptively in future.

-Lilo Wang

 

 

 

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the Crop Plants’ Line of Defense

Posted on September 25, 2017 | 2 comments

Although crops are immobile, they can feel, communicate and protect themselves in an unexpected way. They sense the stressful surroundings, then secretly warning each other without making physical contacts. Their words are produced from their tissues or the roots’ bacteria, then reach another plant through the air. They talk and react to harsh environments, protect themselves from plant pathogens and pests, and eventually adapt to the stresses.

With years of research, scientists have realized that the crops and their root microorganisms abound with natural volatile organic chemicals (VOC), which would be released under stressful conditions, and stimulate the plants to react accordingly to their environment. For example, the volatile chemical, methyl jasmonate, is released when tomatoes are exposed to insects or damaged. This chemical then triggers proteinase inhibitor in the undamaged tomatoes or their neighboring plants, which prevents the plants’ tissues from being digested.

Pic. 1. “face to face talk”, volatile chemicals flow from plants to plants. (Credit: Woolly Pocket)

Certain growth-promoting bacteria in roots space (rhizobacteria) can also sense the stressful environment, and they would contact the crops with the volatile chemicals, so that the behavior of plants can be regulated together by both rhizobacteria and the crop shoots, according to Dr. Ryu and his team’s study.

Pic. 2. Model of crop plants facing stressful conditions (PGPR= rhizobacteria, PR genes: Plant Pathogen genes) (Credit to Ryu et al, 2013)

They have found out that the rhizobacteria would trigger both ISR (induced systemic resistance) and IST (induced systemic tolerance) handling biotic and abiotic stresses separately. The rhizobacteria would produce salicylic acid and ethylene and trigger ISR for crops and prevent the pathogen’s infection. They can also regulate the sodium and iron uptake factors (HKT1 and FIT1), and the crop’s tissues would reduce the uptake level of these chemicals under IST.

It is also considered by Dr. Ryu’s team that the future fertilizers and/or pesticides can be developed from the bacterial-volatiles-plants relationship. They would apply certain water-soluble volatile chemicals, such as 2,3-butanediol, to make them more available for the rhizobacteria, which could then readily protect the plants. This chemical would be safe to animals and inexpensive (<$1/kg). But more research would be needed before such product becomes available in the markets.

Even without the potential application, it is still amazing to understand the crops’ languages and their lines of defense. Afterall, these wonderful creatures should be appreciated by their interesting behaviors more than just being food.

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