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Understanding the Effects of Emerging Contaminants on Ecosystem Services

Explore the impact of contaminants on ecosystem services, from short-term benefits like drinking water to long-term sustainable provision of goods. Learn how pollutants affect species health and disrupt ecosystem function through various biological processes. Witness the consequences of contaminants on fish and other organisms, underscoring the urgency for further research. Discover the interconnectedness of contaminants with other environmental stressors, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, emphasizing the need for comprehensive understanding and action.

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Understanding the Effects of Emerging Contaminants on Ecosystem Services

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  1. The Ecological Consequences of Emerging Contaminants Jill Baron Ecological Society of America And U.S. Geological Survey

  2. Ecosystem Services • The conditions and processes by which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up, sustain and fulfill human life. Daily, 1997 Nature’s Services

  3. Ecosystem Services:Short-Term Benefits • Drinking water • Food supply • Flood Control • Purification of human, agricultural and industrial wastes • Habitat for plant and animal life

  4. Ecosystem Services:Long-Term Benefits • Sustained provision of goods and services • Adaptive capacity to respond to future alterations and disturbances

  5. Contaminants Interferewith ecosystem function • By reducing the health and reproductive success of species (H) • Perhaps by altering food web dynamics, predator prey dynamics, and nutrient cycling (L) Ultimately, ecosystem services required by society may be affected

  6. Contaminants Affect Organism Health Through Disruption of: • Neurological • Endocrine • Immune • Reproductive • Behavioral Processes and Functions

  7. Eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki Normal (control) Female Environmental Androgen Treated Female Normal (control) Male gonopodium anal fin anal fin elongation anal fin total anal fin total anal fin Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28. 2002 Secondary Sex Characteristics:Masculinization of Gambusia & Environmental Androgen Exposure

  8. Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28. 2002 Bioindicators of Reproductive/Endocrine Function and EDC ExposurePlasma estradiol in female fish and EDC exposure effects.

  9. Sex steroids in female largemouth bass Estradiol Testosterone 2000 11-KT pg/ml in plasma 1000 0 Control 25ppb 50ppb 100ppb Atrazine Atrazine may be a significant endocrine disruptor in fish Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28, 2002

  10. - River otters from Puget Sound had smaller testes and reduced baculum size and weight. • this organ hypoplasia correlated with organochlorines, PCBs, dioxins & furans. • - work is continuing to ID chemical causes and mode of action. Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28, 2002

  11. Catfish with deformities (above) and tumors (right) Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28, 2002

  12. Atlantic salmon exposed to low levels of pesticides and endocrine-disrupting chemicals in their freshwater juvenile stage may have reduced survival at sea. Atrazine reduces fish ability to physiologically adapt to saline conditions, causing mortality. Bay of Fundy atlantic salmon populations are only 1% of historical numbers, while pesticides and other organic chemicals are high from agricultural runoff. W. Fairchild, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

  13. Physiological Disruption Propagates up to Higher Levels from Porter, et al. 1999, Toxicol. and Indust. Health

  14. Non-Effluent Stream Percentage of Total Biovolume • Algal Genus • Navicula • Aphanacapsa • Synedra • Sphaerocystis • Chlamydomonas Loss of Rare Genera Wilson, Smith, deNoyelles, Larive, Univ. KS

  15. Non-Effluent Stream Percentage of Total Biovolume • Algal Genus • Navicula • Aphanacapsa • Synedra • Sphaerocystis • Chlamydomonas Increase in Synedra (diatom) Wilson, Smith, deNoyelles, Larive, Univ. KS

  16. Non-Effluent Stream Percentage of Total Biovolume • Algal Genus • Navicula • Aphanacapsa • Synedra • Sphaerocystis • Chlamydomonas Switch to dominance by cyanobacteria Wilson, Smith, deNoyelles, Larive, Univ. KS

  17. . . . . . . . . . . . A Simplified Lake Food Web Fish Zooplankton Phytoplankton Ciliates & Flagellates Bacteria Benthic Algae Benthic Invertebrates

  18. Summary • Some compounds affect physiology at extremely low concentrations. • We know hardly anything about the toxicology of most new chemicals on plants and animals. • We know less than that about effects to populations, communities, ecosystems.

  19. Near Gary, Indiana Program Review, Feb. 25 – 28, 2002

  20. Summary • Emerging contaminants are an area of concern in addition to contaminants that are somewhat better studied: nutrients (N & P), PCBs, metals.

  21. Contaminants as One of Many Environmental Stressors Contaminants act on species in concert with other human-driven disturbances: climate change, non-native species invasions, land use change, altered hydrologic patterns, other contaminants. Climate Change Water Pollution Increased UV Land-use change Air Pollution Biodiversity loss Invasive Species Acid deposition

  22. We know very little about how contaminants affect organisms and ecosystems, either alone, with other contaminants, or in conjunction with other environmental stresses.

  23. Thanks to: Applied and Aquatic Ecology Sections of the Ecological Society of America USGS Biological Resources Division Contaminants Program Review Team

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