&EPA
www.epa.gov
MED in Review
EPA/600/N-09/039	Spring 2009
United States Environmental
Protection Agency
• Office of Research and
Development
• National Health and
Environmental Effects
Research Laboratory
• Mid-Continent Ecology
Division, Duluth,
Minnesota
In this Issue:
Research Events
Featured Research
Current Events
New Publications
MED Seminars
Awards
People
MED in Review Editor
Mary Ann Starus
(218)529-5075
starus.maryann@epa.gov
MED in Review Design
SES3 Contract
GS-35F-4594G
Task Order 1508
Research Events
Division Ecologists Contribute to Workshop on Lake Superior Regulation
Review
In February, Division Ecologists Anett Trebitz, Michael Sierszen,
Tom Hollenhorst, and Janet Keough were invited members of a
workshop to refine indicators and approaches to investigating
alternative outflow regulation plans for Lake Superior. The
workshop, held in Windsor, Ontario, was sponsored by the
International Joint Commission for the International Upper Great
Lakes Study (http://www.iugls.org/en/home accueil.htm). The
workshop was organized by the Ecosystem Technical Workgroup
for the Upper Great Lakes Study and brought together a group of
Great Lakes coastal ecologists from the US and Canada. The
workshop provided a review of a white paper that will serve as the
strategy for the Ecosystem assessment of alternative regulation plans.
Contact: Janet Keough (218) 529-5025 (keough.janet@epa.gov)
Ord Great Lakes Invasive Species Initiative
On March 5, ORD scientists from the National Center for Environmental Assessment
(NCEA), National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), and the National Health and
Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEBRL) visited the Great Lakes National
Program Office (GLNPO) and Region 5 in Chicago to present the findings of the ORD Great
Lakes Invasive Species Initiative. GLNPO and Region 5 have been the primary clients of the
Initiative, and the visit on March 5th was the third meeting focusing on progress, results, and
outcomes.
The ORD Great Lakes Initiative included a wide array of topics but had three primary
emphasis areas: 1) predict the spread of potential invasive species that are likely to become
established and reach nuisance levels, 2) develop and implement monitoring protocols using
customized and advanced techniques in high-risk areas, and 3) predict the potential ecosystem
impacts of invasive species on the lower food web.
ORD speakers on the agenda were Russell Kreis (NHEERL-MED)
and Michael Slimak (NCEA-HQ), who presented an introduction and
overview of the Initiative and facilitated a discussion on next steps and
future considerations; and Victor Serveiss (NCJBA-HQ), who provided
results of the GARP (Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction)
invasive species modeling for potential invaders and geographical	Zebra Mussel
spread. Jack Kelly (NHEERL-MED) discussed findings and outcomes
for early detection monitoring techniques. John Darling (NERL-Cincinnati) provided results
of advanced molecular/DNA diagnosis detection methods. David Miller (NHEERL-MED)
presented results of invasive species effects on lower food web productivity and abundance.
Continued on next page...
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Invasive Species Initiative - continued
The research topics and results addressed by the Initiative are of great interest to GLNPO and Region 5. Research outcomes will be
used to inform present and future issues under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, Collaborative Science and Monitoring
Initiative, and the Great Lakes Rapid Response Task Force. Research supports a range of legislation including Executive Order for
Great Lakes Regional Cooperation, Clean Water Act, National Aquatic Invasive Species Act, US-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, and Great Lakes Legacy Act. This was an opportunity for ORD to showcase multi-disciplinary research from one of its
centers and two laboratories that demonstrates ORD support to address critical issues for program offices and regions.
Contact: Russell G. Kreis Jr. (734) 692-7615
ORD Scientists Contribute to SETAC Workshop on Predictive Ecotoxicology, April 19-24
Approximately 40 experts with multidisciplinary backgrounds participated in a SETAC-sponsored Pellston
workshop, "A Vision and Strategy for Predictive Ecotoxicology in the 21st Century: Defining Adverse
Outcome Pathways Associated with Ecological Risk." The workshop, held in Forest Grove, Oregon,
focused on some of the key challenges related to implementing a predictive toxicity testing paradigm (i.e.,
greater use of in vitro assay s, molecular and biochemical markers, and predictive models) in the field of
ecological risk assessment. The workshop was supported by the US Army Engineering Research and
Development Center (ERDC), the Procter and Gamble Company, the European Natural Environment
Research Council (NERC), and the USEPA. MED toxicologist Dan Villeneuve co-chaired the workshop and
MED researchers Gerald Ankley and John Nichols served as participants and ad hoc advisors to the
organizing committee. Additional participating ORD scientists were Kevin Crofton (NTD), Stephen
Edwards (NHEERL), and Matthew Etterson (MED).
This workshop was an opportunity for ORD scientists to provide leadership in developing concrete research strategies aimed at making
more effective use of mode-of-action-based predictive tools to support ecological risk assessments. The recent US National Research
Council (NRC) report, J Vision and Strategy for Toxicity Testing in the 21 st Century, advocated greater use of in vitro bioassays and
mode-of-action-based predictive models as a basis for future human health risk assessment. This workshop provided ORD
scientists with an opportunity to discuss how the strategy and vision proposed by the NRC can be applied to ecological risk
assessment, and develop research strategies that can provide the scientific foundation to support implementation of that vision in the
field of ecotoxicology;. Additionally, it provided a unique forum for ORD scientists to exchange ideas with internationally-recognized
scientists from academia, government, and the private sector, and communicate those ideas to the scientific community via the
workshop proceedings, which are to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Contact: Dan Villeneuve (218) 529-52 17
MED Scientists Organize Great Rivers Special Session at NABS Meeting, May 17-22
NABS
i Grand Rapids J"
V Michigan^
Ecological research on great rivers has lagged behind research on smaller rivers and streams. For
the mid-continent great rivers of the US - the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio - a recent EPA
research effort, the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program for Great Rivers (EMAP-
GRE) has increased our knowledge of the ecology of these rivers, and has motivated the
development of new large river bioassessment tools. This special session, Basic and applied
ecological research on the US mid-continent great rivers, will highlight the recent research on
these rivers conducted by EMAP-GRE participants and by other scientists working in the mid-
continent great rivers. The underlying theme of the session is how basic and applied ecological
research findings are relevant for river monitoring, management, and restoration. The session,
organized by Drs. Brian Hill and Ted Angradi of MED, will consist of 18 presentations by
federal, basin commission, state, and university researchers.
This will be the 57th annual meeting of the North American Benthological Society, and will be
held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The NABS annual meeting has established a reputation for the
high quality of its program and presentations. Contact: Brian Hill (218) 529-5224
SETAC,
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MED Scientists Participate in 52nd Annual IAGLR Conference, May 18-22
The International Association for
Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) will
^rlAGLR convene its 52 nd Annual
Conference at the University of
Toledo. IAGLR is devoted to
research on the St. Lawrence Great
Lakes and other large lakes of the world. The theme for IAGLR
2009 is "Bridging Ecosystems and Environmental Health" and
the conference will feature 42 technical sessions and more than
500 oral and poster presentations, with an anticipated attendance
of over 800. Conference information can be found at:
http://www.iaglr.org/conference
Scientists from NHEERL-MED Duluth, Minnesota, and Grosse
lie, Michigan, will be attending and are senior authors on four
presentations and co-authors on three others, distributed over five
technical sessions. Peder Yurista has co-convened the technical
session entitled Upper Great Lakes food webs, conditions, and
assessments, and will also present a platform presentation in the
session. Jack Kelly will also present in the same session. Russell
Kreis will present an invited paper in the session entitled Fish
contaminant advisories in the Great Lakes: bridging
contaminants and human health. Ronald Rossmann will
participate in Causes of injury to ecosystems and environmental
health across the Great Lakes. Two presentations with MED
co-authors will also be given in the Physical limnology and
physical-chemical-biological coupling in lakes session, and one
in the Remote sensing, visualization, and spatial data
applications for the Great Lakes session.
This international event is the largest Great Lakes conference of
the year, and an opportunity for MED staff to showcase research
results over a broad range of topic areas and network with other
Great Lakes scientists working in multi-disciplinary areas. The
presentations support a range of legislation including Executive
Order for Regional Cooperation, Clean Water Act, US-Canada
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and Great Lakes Legacy
Act. Contact: Russell G. Kreis Jr. (734) 692-7615
Featured Research
An integrated watershed-nearshore observing system reveals landscape pressures on the Great Lakes
MED has an active research program that focuses on the nearshore/coastal zone of the Great Lakes. Shallow coastal waters have
received little attention from the perspective of monitoring and research, although there is a widely-recognized need for a consistent
and comprehensive set of information. MED's research and development efforts of the past 6-8 years have had two general thrusts:
1) to develop the means to adequately sample and report on coastal aquatic ecosystems and, moreover, to integrate such information
into a larger whole lake assessment context; and 2) to examine the nature and expression of contributing watersheds upon coastal
systems, to aid in protective and restorative strategies for the entire basin-lake
topic are highlighted in this briefing.
Coastal systems are dynamic and have notoriously wide ranges of
environmental/ecological variability. As consequence, one issue has been a
difficulty in resolving the "signal" of ecological effects due to terrestrial,
landscape discharges from the "noise" of background spatial and temporal
variability. To overcome this problem, MED has been developing a high
resolution in situ water sampling system to provide information at appropriate
scales for the nearshore, yet sample efficiently and cost-effectively. To date,
we have used this system to survey much of Lake Superior, the entire US
coast of Lake Huron, and a full circumnavigation of Lake Ontario. This
summer, we will circumnavigate Lake Erie and in 2010 we expect to cover
Lake Michigan.
In conjunction with the information on water quality and plankton biology
from these surveys, we have been using detailed landscape data summarized
spatially for all the US watersheds across the Great Lakes as part of the Great
Lakes Environmental Indicators Project (see Danz et al. 2007; Niemi and
Kelly, 2007). The combination of water and landscape quality data has
proven very powerful. It has helped us resolve some of the driving pressures
which exist on land that influence the ecology of the lake. Remarkably, in
Lake Superior (See Figure) we have successfully used certain landscape
information to predict the water quality, phytoplankton, and zooplankton
Continued on next page...
system. Some recent progress and findings on the latter
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Figure. From Yurista and Kelly (In press). The black points
show water-column integrated biomass of zooplankton
measured by an in situ sensor oscillated from near-bottom to
near-surface, and summarized as 0.25 km track lengths.
Segmentsheds represent watersheds along this 537-km
nearshore transect that followed the western Lake Superior
shoreline. The red line shows a model prediction of biomass
based on a spatially-explicit multivariate regression that uses
four terrestrial landscape metrics summarized for adjacent
watersheds as predictor variables.
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LANDSCAPE PRESSURES ON THE GREAT LAKES - CONTINUED
abundance and biomass with the shallow receiving nearshore waters. We know that discernible nearshore patterns are somewhat stable
within seasons, as we see repeatable features over repeated surveys in the same lake. Subsequent similar summaries for the other lakes
are being prepared and we will soon have a complete picture across the whole shoreline of the Great Lakes that begins to tie the
terrestrial basin activities to the nearshore lake quality.
References:
Danz, N., G.J. Niemi, R.R. Regal, T. Hollenhorst, L. Johnson, J. Hanowski, R.P. Axler, J. Ciborowski, T. Hrabik, V.J. Brady,
J.R. Kelly, J.A. Morrice, J.C. Brazner, R. Howe, C.A. Johnson, and G.EL Host. 2007. Integrated measures of anthropogenic
stress in the US Great Lakes Basin. Environmental Management 39:631-647.
Niemi, G. J. and J.R. Kelly (Guest Editors). 2007. Environmental indicators for the coastal region of the North American Great
Lakes. Special Issue of Journal of Great Lakes Research Volume 33(S13).
Yurista, P.M. and J.R. Kelly. Spatial patterns of water quality and plankton from high-resolution continuous in situ sensing along a
537-km nearshore transect of western Lake Superior, 2004. Special Lake Superior Issue, Aquatic Ecosystem Health and
Management Society, In: Ecovision World Monograph Series, Backhuys Publishers, the Netherlands. In press.
Extrapolating Bioaccumulation Data
When performing assessments of risk at sites with contaminated sediments, risk assessors
need to estimate residues in fish and other aquatic biota based upon the levels of
contaminants in the sediments. Unfortunately, risk assessors are often challenged by data
limitations, i.e., 1) contaminant data available for the sediments only (i.e., no contaminant
data for biota), 2) incomplete data such that biota-sediment accumulation factors (BSAFs)
can not be developed because of temporal and/or spatial differences between the sediment
and tissue data, and 3) BSAF data limited to select locations and/or species. When
adequate field data exist, residues in fish and other aquatic biota can be estimated
mechanistically with food web models or empirically with field measured BSAFs.
However, for cases with inadequate data, risk assessors must use some type of estimation
or extrapolation technique where BSAFs are ultimately derived for the species and location
of interest: from existing BSAF data. Extrapolation techniques can range from direct
application of existing BSAF data to the site of interest to the development of BSAFs from existing data after modification for
condition differences. The need for extrapolation techniques is great given the number and diversity of Superfund sites across the
nation.
A
W
In order to develop extrapolation techniques, a dataset of approximately 17,000
BSAFs was assembled from two sources: 1) an EPA data set consisting data from 20
sites, mostly Superfund sites, and includes data from 14 freshwater, 4 marine, and 2
tidal ecosystems; and 2) BSAF data from the field study of Wong et al. (2001) for
chlorinated pesticides from 90 stream/river sites for mussel and fish species. With
these data, BSAFs were predicted by simply applying a BSAF from one
location/site/species combination to another. The predicted BSAF was then
compared to the measured BSAF for the comparison of interest, and level of
agreement was tabulated. Five different scenarios, commonly faced by Superfund
risk assessors, were evaluated: 1) application of BSAFs from one species
to other species at a sampling location, 2 ) application of BSAFs from one
location to other locations within a site for the same species, 3) application of BSAFs
from one species to other species at different locations within a site, 4) application of
BSAFs from one site to other sites for the same species, and 5) application of BSAFs from one species to other species across sites.
Comparisons of estimated and measured BSAFs revealed median differences of <2 for within location, <3 for across locations, and
<4 for across site extrapolations (by simply applying BSAFs) for fish, mussel, and decapod crustacean data groups. In general,
median differences were relatively similar across chemical classes, i.e., PCBs, PCBs with fills. PCDD/Fs, chlorinated pesticides, and
PAHs. These comparisons suggest that sediment to fish relationships can be estimated, with reasonable accuracy (i.e., <3 ), for most
situations commonly faced by Superfund risk assessors. Contact: Lawrence Burkhard (218) 529-5164
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Current Events
MED's New Aquatic Culture Wastewater System
In mid-March, the Division began to send the water used to culture its aquatic animals to a new on-site wastewater treatment system.
We previously disposed of this water by sending it to the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District's treatment plant in Duluth. The
facility initially draws clean water from Lake Superior and uses it to husband fish, frogs, and invertebrates for research programs.
Water from this culture operation contains only unused food and animal waste from healthy animals; this wastewater does not contain
water used in toxicology research. This water is used to rear a diverse array of aquatic organisms at the Duluth EPA facility, including
several species of small fish (i.e., fathead minnow, medaka, zebrafish, and sculp in), two amphibian (Xenopus) species, rainbow and
brook trout, and various classes of aquatic invertebrates such as Lumbriculus, Hyallela, and Daphnia. Over 50,000 gallons per day of
Lake Superior water are used for culturing, and had been discharged to the local sanitary district for treatment. This single pass water
added a large volume of essentially clean water to the sanitary sewer system, and cost the Division over $100,000/year for treatment.
The new wastewater treatment process allows us to treat this water to remove bacteria and nutrients from the culture water and return it
to Lake Superior as clean water. Contact: Carl Richards (218) 529-5010
University for Seniors, 2009
A group of scientists from MED presented a water quality course as part of the University of Minnesota Duluth's University for
Seniors continuing education program. In this winter term course conducted during January and February, current research from a
variety of ongoing research programs within the USEPA was presented and discussed with students. Speakers emphasized the
relationship between the national environmental problems, the regulatory setting for these issues, and ongoing research that helps
address fundamental science questions needed to resolve these difficult problems. Over 25 students enrolled in the course. Topics and
instructors were:
Water quality issues associated with Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs), Gary Ankley
Environmental monitoring and assessment of great rivers, Dave Bolgrien
Nanomaterials: Is there a water quality problem? Steve Diamond
Nitrogen and the Mississippi River, Brian Hill
Overview of EPA regulatory and research challenges, Carl Richards
Great Lakes coastal wetlands: Overview of their ecology and human impacts, Anett Trebitz
The new world of predictive toxicology, Dan Villeneuve
Great Lakes nearshore zones, Peder Yurista
fP Continuing I*
\
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS
"Wisdom. Creativity, and Vitality"
Division hosts EPA's BOSC Executive Committee
In early June, the Division will host a regular meeting of the Executive Committee of EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC).
The Executive Committee tries to hold at least one meeting a year at one ORD's laboratories. This will be a chance for the committee
to visit our facilities and learn about our research programs. Contact: Carl Richards (218) 529-5010
New Publications since November 2008
Angradi, T.R., D.W. Bolgrien, T.M. Jicha, M.S. Pearson,
D.L. Taylor, and B.H. Hill. 2009. Multispatial-scale
variation in benthic and snag-surface macroinvertebrate
assemblages in mid-continent US great rivers. Journal of
the North American Bentliological Society 28:122-141.
Angradi, T.R., D.L. Taylor, T.M. Jicha, D.W. Bolgrien,
M.S. Pearson, and B.H. Hill. 2009. Littoral and shoreline
wood in mid-continent great rivers (USA). River Research
and Applications 24:1-18.
I MED in Review
| Mid-Continent Ecology Division • Duluth, MN
Ankley, G.T., D.C. Bencic, M.S. Breen, T.W. Collette,
R.B. Conolly, N.D. Denslow, S.W. Edwards, D.R. Ekman,
N. Garcia-Reyero, K.M. Jensen, J.M. Lazorchak,
D. Martinovic, D.H. Miller, E.J. Perkins, E.F. Orlando, D.L.
Villeneuve, and R.-L. Wang. 2009. Endocrine disrupting
chemicals in fish: Developing exposure indicators and
predictive models of effects based on mechanism of action.
Aquatic Toxicology 92:168-178.
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Bennett, R.S., J.B. French, R. Rossmann, and R. Haebler. 2009.
Dietary toxicity and tissue accumulation of methylmercury
in American kestrels. Archives of Environmental
Contamination and Toxicology 56:149-156.
Cormier, S.M., J.F. Paul, and R.L. Spehar. 2009. Chapter 1:
Estimation of effect thresholds for the development of water
quality criteria. In: Real-Time and Deliberative Decision
Making, I. Linkov, E. Ferguson, V. Magar, Eds., Springer,
the Netherlands, pp.159-178.
Ekman, D.R., Q. Teng, D.L. Villeneuve, M.D. Kahl,
K.M. Jensen, E..T. Durhan, G.T. Ankley, and T.W. Collette.
2009. Profiling lipid metabolites yields unique information
on sex- and time-dependent responses of fathead minnows
{Pimephalespromelas) ex posed to 17 oc-ethynylestradiol.
Metabolomics 5:22-32.
Martinovic, D., D.L. Villeneuve, M.D. Kahl, L.S. Blake,
J. Brodin, and G.T. Ankley. 2009. Elypoxia alters gene
expression in the gonads of zebrafish (Dcmio rerio). Aquatic
Toxicology. Published online:
doi: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2008.08.021
Martyniuk, C.J., S. Alvarez, S. McClung, D.L. Villeneuve ,
G.T. Ankley, andN.D. Denslow. 2009. Quantitative
proteomic profiles of androgen receptor signaling in the
liver of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Proteome
Research 8:2186-2200.
Melendez, W., M. Settles, J.J. Pauer, and K.R. Rygwelski. 2009.
LM-3: A high-resolution Lake Michigan mass balance water
quality model, USEPA/ORD/NE1EERL/MED, Large Lakes
and Rivers Forecasting Research Branch, EPA/600/R-
09/020.
Etterson, M.A., R.S. Bennett, E.L. Kershner, and J.W. Walk.
2009. Markov chain estimation of avian seasonal fecundity.
Ecological Applications 19:622-630.
Garcia-Reyero, N., D.L. Villeneuve, K..T. Kroll, L. Liu,
E. Orlando, K. Watanabe, M. Sepulveda, G.T. Ankley, and
N.D. Denslow. 2009. Expression signatures for a model
androgen and antiandrogen in the fathead minnow
(Pimephales promelas) ovary. Environmental Science &
Technology 43: 2614-2619.
Jensen, O.P., P.M. Yurista, T.R. Elrabik, and J.D. Stockwell.
2009. Densities and diel vertical migration oiMysis relicta
in Lake Superior: a comparison of optical plankton counter
and net-based approaches. Verh. Internat. Verein. LimnoL
30:957-963.
Pauer, J.J. and M.T. Auer. 2009. Formulation and testing of a
novel river nitrification model. Ecological Modelling
220:857-866.
Weisbrod, A.V., J. Sahi, El. Segner, M.O. James, J. Nichols,
I. Schultz, S. Erhardt, C. Cowan-Ellsberry, M. Bonnell, and
B. Eloeger. 2009. The state of in vitro science for use in
bioaccumulation assessments for fish. Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry 28:86-96.
Zhang, X., K.R. Rygwelski, and R. Rossmann. 2009. The Lake
Michigan contaminant transport and fate model, LM2-toxic:
development, overview, and application. Journal of Great
Lakes Research 35:128-136.
Johns, S., M. Kane, N. Denslow, K. Watanabe, E. Orlando,
D.L. Villeneuve, G.T. Ankley, and M. Sepulveda. 2009.
Characterization of ontogenetic changes in gene expression
in the fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas).
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 28:873-880.
MED Seminars
Recent and Upcoming Seminars
February 19
Dr. Julieta Werner, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON
Pulp and paper mill effluents induce distinct gene
expression changes linked to androgenic and estrogenic
responses in the fathead minnow (Pimephales
promelas)
F ebruary 2 5
Dr. James Wheeler, Syngenta, Berkshire, UK
Endocrine disruption: some European activities and
regulatory impacts
March 11
Dr. Jake Beaulieu, USEPA, National Risk Management Research
Laboratory, Cincinnati, OE1
Nitrous oxide emissions from streams and rivers
April 15
Dr. Sarah A. Spaulding, USGS Institute of Arctic and Alpine
Research University of Colorado, Boulder
Ecology and distribution of Didymosphenia geminata "Didymo":
a Lake Superior diatom
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Seminars - continued
April 22
Dr. Robin Sternberg, NRC Associate, MED
Regulation of thyroid-stimulating hormone release from
the pituitary by thyroxine during metamorphosis in
Xen opus laevis
April 29
Lake Superior Monitoring Conference
Host: MN SeaGrant
May 6
Dr. Euan Reavie, Center for Water and the Environment,
Natural Resources Research Institute, UMD, Ely, MN
Phytoplankton from Great Lakes monitoring
May 12
Lindsey Blake, MS Candidate, Integrated Biological Sciences, UMD
Characterization of the androgen-sensitive MDA-kb2 cell line for
assessing complex environmental mixtures
May 13
Dr. Allen Olmstead, NRC Associate, MED
Xenopus tropicalis reproductive toxicology
May 27
Dr. Jose Serrano, MED
Biomarkers and proteomics
Awards
2008 EPA Science and Technology Achievement Awards ("STAA")
STAA awards are sponsored by EPA's Office of Research & Development to recognize publications that demonstrate scientific
excellence in support of the Agency's mission. Publications are reviewed and selected annually by EPA's Science Advisory Board, a
panel of non-EPA experts. STAA winners represent some of our finest accomplishments and our best products.
Level 1 Hornung, M.W., P.M. Cook, P.N. Fitzsimmons, D.W. Kuehl, and J.W. Nichols. 2007. Tissue distribution and
metabolism of benzo[a]pyrene in embryonic and larval medaka (Oryzicis latipes). Toxicological Sciences 100:393-405.
Level 2 Ekman, D.R., Q. Teng, K.M. Jensen, D. Martinovic, D.L. Villeneuve, G.T. Ankley, and T.W. Collette. 2007. NMR
analysis of male fathead minnow urinary metabolites: A potential approach for studying impacts of chemical exposures.
Analytical Toxicology 85:104-112.
Level 2 Degitz, S.J., G.W. Holcombe, K.M. Flynn, P.A. Kosian, J.J. Korte, and J.E. Tietge. 2005. Progress towards development
of an amphibian-based thyroid screening assay using Xenopus laevis: Organismal and thyroidal responses to the model
compounds 6-propylthiouracil, methimazole, and thyroxine. Toxicological Sciences 87:353-364.
and
Tietge, J.E., G.W. Holcombe, K.M. Flynn, P.A. Kosian, J.J. Korte, L.E. Anderson, D. Wolf, and S.J. Degitz. 2005.
Metamorphic inhibition of Xenopus laevis by sodium perchlorate: Effects on development and thyroid histology.
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 24:926-933.
Level 3 Norberg-King, T.J., P.K. Sibley, G. Burton, C.G. Ingersoll, N. Kemble, S. Ireland, D.R. Mount, and C. Rowland. 2006.
Interlaboratory evaluation of Hyalella azteca and Chironomus teutons short-term and long-term sediment toxicity tests.
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25:2662-2674.
Sierszen, M.E., G.S. Peterson, and J.V. Scharold. 2006. Depth-specific patterns in benthic-planktonic food web
relationships in Lake Superior. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63:1496-1503.
Trebitz, A.S. 2006. Characterizing seiche and tide-driven daily water level fluctuations affecting coastal ecosystems of
the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research 32:102-116.
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Awards - continued
Honorable Bennett, R.S. and M.A. Etterson. 2006. Estimating pesticide effects on fecundity rates of wild birds using current
Mention laboratory reproduction tests. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 12:762-781.
and
Bennett, R.S. and M.A. Etterson. 2007. Incorporating results of avian toxicity tests into a model of annual reproductive
success. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 3:498-507.
and
Etterson, M.A. and R.S. Bennett. 2006, On the use of published demographic data for population-level risk assessment in
birds. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment 12:1074-1093.
Honorable Fitzsimmons, P.N., G.L. Lien, and J.W. Nichols. 2007. A compilation of in vitro rate and affinity values for xenobiotic
Mention biotransformation in fish measured under physiological conditions. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part C
145:485-506.
and
Nichols, J.W., I.R. Schultz, and P.N. Fitzsimmons. 2006. In vitro-in vivo extrapolation of quantitative hepatic
biotransformation data for fish. I. A review of methods and strategies for incorporating intrinsic clearance estimates into
chemical kinetic models. Aquatic Toxicology 78:74-90.
and
Nichols, J.W., P.N, Fitzsimmons, and L.P. Burkhard. 2007. In vitro-in vivo extrapolation of quantitative hepatic
biotransformation data for fish. II. Modeled effects on chemical bioaccumillation. Environmental Toxicology and
Chemistry 26:1304-1319.
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S. Walters, and W.R. Munns, Jr. 2005. An approach to predict risks to wildlife populations from mercury and other
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Villeneuve, D.L., P. Larkin, I. Knoebl, A.L. Miracle, M.D. Kahl, K.M. Jensen, E.A. Makynen, E.J. Durhan, B.J. Carter,
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Hororable
Mention
Honorable
Mention
People
Gary Holcombe Retires
tin August of 1970, Gary began his career at the Division, when it was the "Water Lab". In late December,
he finally hung up the lab coat for the last time. Gary has been a friend and colleague to many people at
MED throughout the years. We will miss his even temperament, work ethic, scientific contributions, and
ability to work well with people and take on new challenges.
Gary was great to work with in the lab. He is known for having the most organized, complete, and orderly
lab books ever. Color coded hand drawn data sheets filled volumes of lab books with exposures on just
about every species of fresh water organism imaginable. Over the course of his career he was known for
his attention to detail and never left a data point unanswered. He liked to stick to test protocols and could
always find that little bit of information you needed from some exposure he worked on long, long ago,
which would answer your important question, "How did we do it?"
Just when you thought he was all science and serious he'd come over and say,, "Seen that big buck again?" He always liked to mix his
lab day with a little outdoor talk, then back to his test he would go. He is also a mean volleyball player - very sneaky! We miss him
and wish him well.
MED in Review
Mid-Continent Ecology Division • Duluth, MN
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