Carp being prepared for PCB analysis

Extraction of Contaminants from Fish Tissue

PCB and PBDE Congener Analysis on a GC-MS

Fish Contaminant Fate and Transport

Our laboratory has been investigating the fate and transport of environmental contaminants for 20 years, and have moved from identifying pollutant sources, to understanding the dynamics of organic chemicals in aquatic food webs. Our current research is focused on contaminant bioaccumulation and biotransport in macroinvertebrates and fish. The Environmental Chemistry Laboratory is working with the USGS on PCB congener bioaccumulation in Great Lakes fish, and looking at the differences in contaminant accumulation between males and females. We are also evaluating, in collaboration with researchers at Notre Dame, whether or not Pacific salmon in the Great Lakes system are serving as biotransporters of contaminants to resident brook/brown trout streams. As part of this ongoing research, in 2015 we will be further examining congener patterns, and will be submitting a paper on the imprinting of basin specific congener patterns in receiving streams.

Projects:

• Laboratory Estimation of Net Trophic Transfer Efficiencies of PCB Congeners to Lake Trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from Its Prey.
• Polychlorinated biphenyl congener distributions in burbot: Evidence for a latitude effect.
• Polychlorinated Biphenyl Concentrations of Burbot Lota lota from Great Slave Lake are very Low, but Vary by Sex.
• Resident Fishes Display Elevated Organic Pollutants in Salmon Spawning Streams of the Great Lakes.
• Sex Differences in PBDE Concentrations of Walleyes.
• Gender Difference in Walleye PCB Concentrations Persists Following Remedial Dredging.
• Assessment of Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxic Chemicals in Michigan Fish from Several Trophic Levels.
• PCBs in Saginaw Bay Walleye.
• Whitefish Bioenergics Model.