Co-Principal Investigator Rebecca Rooney, who also runs the Waterloo Wetland Laboratory, has co-authored a newly published article on the effects of contaminated biofilms on freshwater invertebrates in urban stormwater ponds.
Biofilm is a common aquatic food source in stormwater ponds. In their research, the authors tested the response of two freshwater macroinvertebrates, the mayfly and the freshwater snail, to experimental exposure of contaminated biofilm taken from 15 stormwater ponds in Brampton, Ontario and compared those to control biofilm diets.
From their experiments, the researchers found that:
- The biofilms collected from the urban stormwater ponds were contaminated with pesticides.
- The survival and growth of test species were reduced when fed biofilm from these ponds.
- Biofilm-consumers, such as freshwater invertebrate in stormwater ponds, may face contaminant exposure via their diet.
Overall, the authors conclude that sensitive biofilm-consuming organisms living in stormwater ponds are likely suffering from previously unrecognized dietary exposure to contaminants – and those contaminants can make their way up through the food chain.
The full article, titled “Dietary exposure of stormwater contaminants in biofilm to two freshwater macroinvertebrates”, is published in Science of the Total Environment and available via open access online.