Multiple Stressors and Chemical Mixtures

In the environment organisms are exposed to combinations of both purely chemical stressors (e.g. metals, pesticides, …) as well as environmental stressors such as those related to global change (e.g. altered nutritional conditions, increasing temperature, algae blooms,…). Because these stressors could interact, the actual toxicity of multiple stressors may be very different from the toxicity of each individual stressor. Most current environmental risk assessment frameworks do not yet account for mixture effects. GhEnToxLab performs research into innovative techniques to monitor environmental mixtures (e.g. using passive sampling), the combined effects of chemical mixtures and the effects of environmental factors related to global change scenarios (temperature, nutritional conditions) on toxicity at the species, population and ecosystem level. The main objective of this research line is to develop models that increase the ecological relevance of environmental risk assessment processes.

Current researchers
Karel Vlaeminck, Josef Koch, Simon Hansul, Abegail Fusilero, Qiyun Zhang

Past researchers
Charlotte Nys, Tina Van Regenmortel, Cecilia Pereira, David Deruytter, Samuel Moeris, Jennifer Hochmuth, Dimitri Van de Perre

PhD theses
Hochmuth, J. (2016). Combined effects of chemical and natural stressors on Daphnia magna in a context of global change: extrapolating from short-term experiments on individuals to long-term effects at the population level. Ghent University. Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent, Belgium.

Nys, C. (2016). Bioavailability and chronic toxicity of metal mixtures in freshwater: modelling and implementation in risk assessment. Ghent University. Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent, Belgium.

Recent publications
Hochmuth, J. et al. (2016). Temperature and food concentration have limited influence on the mixture toxicity of copper and Microcystis aeruginosa to Daphnia magna. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY, 35(3), 742–749.

Nys, C. et al. (2016). Reproductive toxicity of binary and ternary mixture combinations of nickel, zinc, and lead to Ceriodaphnia dubia is best predicted with the independent action model. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY, 35(7), 1796–1805.

Projects
Aquatic systems under multiple Stress: a new paradigm integrating aquaculture and ecotoxicology research (AQUASTRESS)

New Strategies for monitoring and risk assessment of Hazardous chemicals in the marine Environment with Passive Samplers (NewSTHEPS)