Toxicology
Photo Credit: Claire M. Waggoner
It is well documented that many California coastal environments are contaminated, such as industrialized and developed shorelines, ports and marinas, and in regions around wastewater treatment plant outfalls. Potential hazards to public and ecosystem health from pollutants and contaminants of emerging concern continue to be difficult to manage and present a wide range of unknown problems for both ecosystem and public health. Sea Grant funded researchers have begun to document and understand how anthropogenic chemicals in the marine environment cause en docrine and physiological disruption, such as changes to reproductive and metabolic characteristics and changes in growth. Changes like these have a strong potential to threaten survival in a variety of different species residing in coastal California including flatfish, surfperch and sculpin. Other research works on developing powerful diagnostic tools that will enhance assessment and understanding of the effects of contaminant inside marine organisms.
Research and Outreach Projects
- Population Differences in Toxicant Sensitivity in the Tidepool Copepod Tigriopus Californicus: Genetic Vs. Environmental Factors (Edmands)
- Proteomics To Develop Relevant Phenotypic Biomarkers Of Environmental Impacts In Wild Marine Fishes Of Southern California (Kelley, Mason)
- The Copper Problem in California Marinas (Moffett)
- Environmental Endocrine Disruption in Urban Ocean Fish Mechanisms, Causes, Wider Impacts (Kelley)
- Quantifying contaminants of emerging concern in urban watersheds using bivalves and passive samplers (Maruya, Adams)
- Maternal offloading of accumulated organochlorine contaminants in the round stingray (Lowe)
- Mussel Monitoring for the New Millennium (Gracey, Moffett)
- Documentation of Human-Derived Sex Steroid Hormones in Southern California Bight Flatfish (Kelley, Dalkey, Armstrong)
- Impact Of Anthropogenic Ammonium On Primary Production In Estuarine And Coastal Ecosystems (Dugdale, Wilkerson)
Related Links
- Urban Mariner. "Is it Safe to Swim." May 2009, Volume 1, Number 1
- OEHHA (Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment)
- RWQCB (Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board)
- SWRCB (State Water Resources Control Board)
- UC Davis Extension - Land Use and Natural Resource Program
- California Coastal Commission
- California EPA
- National NEMO Network
Funding Opportunities
Click here to learn about funding opportunities through USC Sea Grant.For more information
seagrant@usc.edu(213) 740-1961
National Focus Area
Healthy Coastal Ecosystems
