EPA Water Research Webinar: M and M's: Developing Methods to Detect Toxicity in Water using Mayflies and Mussels

March 27, 2019 6:00pm to 7:00pm

EPA's Office of Research and Development, Safe and Sustainable Water Resource Research Program invites you to a free webinar as part of the Water Research Webinar Series, a bimonthly webinar series focused on EPA's water research.

"M and M's: Developing Methods to Detect Toxicity in Water using Mayflies and Mussels"

Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Time: 2:00 to 3:00 PM

Registration

A certificate of attendance will be provided for attending this webinar.


 

Whole effluent toxicity (WET) methods are used to assess whether effluents (water discharged from wastewater treatment
plants or industry) and ambient waters cause toxicity to aquatic life. Currently, EPA’s effluent permitting program relies on
short-term chronic freshwater tests (4-d to 8-d) with cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia dubia), green algae (Raphidocelis subcapitata)
and fish (Pimephales promelas). To further protect aquatic life, there is a need to provide additional standardized test species
for freshwater environments for chronic exposures. Currently, EPA scientists are collaborating with scientists from the U.S.
Geological Survey and the Illinois Natural History Survey to develop and standardize additional test species, such as the
mayfly (Neocloeon triangulifer) and the mussel (Lampsilis siliquoidea). This webinar will highlight the progress with the mayfly
and mussel.


About the Presenters:

Teresa J. Norberg-King
Teresa is a research aquatic biologist with EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Her research focuses on
developing effective methods for identifying significant stressors and effects in aquatic systems where effluent
and sediment contamination are of concern. The goals of much of her research, applications, and science
outreach include developing techniques for improvements in water quality by working to identify environmental
contaminants, including unknown sources of toxicity, and developing/validating toxicity tests to predict their effects
in the environment. Teresa has an M.S. from the University of Wyoming and a B.S. in biology from the University of
Minnesota Duluth.


Dave Soucek, Ph.D.
Dave is an ecotoxicologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey, and has adjunct appointments in the Departments of
Entomology, and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois, and the Department
of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. His research program is focused broadly on
aquatic toxicology of freshwater organisms with emphasis on investigating contaminants (exposure and fate and
effects); development and improvement of toxicity testing methods for aquatic organisms; research in support
of updating water quality criteria; and investigating factors that influence the toxicity of aquatic contaminants,
particularly major ions. Dave has a Ph.D. in biology from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in zoology from Clemson University.


Ning Wang, Ph.D.
Ning is a research fish biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia Environmental Research Center (CERC). He
has led numerous research projects at CERC, including the development of standard methods for conducting early
life-stage toxicity tests with freshwater mussels, the assessment of sensitivity of threatened and endangered fish and
aquatic invertebrates to contaminants, the evaluation of toxicity of contaminated surface waters and sediments to
aquatic organisms, and the evaluation of the toxicity of major ion salts and metals to fish and aquatic invertebrates.
Ning has Ph.D. in natural sciences from the University of Konstanz and a B.S. in Fisheries from Huazhong Agricultural
University. He conducted his post-doctoral research on fish feeding and bioenergetics at the University of Missouri.


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