Author

Xiaoxuan Fan

Date of Award

Spring 2021

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Environmental Health Sciences

First Advisor

Geoffrey I. Scott

Abstract

Contemporary pollution issues are primarily focused on Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) which may include Brominated and Fluorinated flame retardants, Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs), Contemporary Use Pesticides (CUPs), nanomaterials and microplastics (Muraya et al., 2014). Tire wear particles and textile microfibers are examples of CECs which may gradually increase in the environment and may cause adverse effect on the health of some aquatic species (Marwood et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2016). Microplastic particles are so small that they can be ingested by many marine species such as filter feeders and small particle feeders including mollusk and crustaceans, which will bioaccumulate within their body and some of the smallest particles may pass into individual cells where they are transparent and may cause harmful effects on a molecular level. Many studies (Gray and Weinstein, 2017; Qiao et al., 2019; Scherer et al., 2018) have observed that bioaccumulation of different sizes, types and shapes of microplastics and nanoplastics may occur. However, there is very little evidence about interaction between microplastics and coexisting contaminants. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate toxicity of textile microfibers and tire wear particles and their influence on toxicity effect of bifenthrin, a contemporary use pyrethroid insecticide, toward estuarine adult grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, a very widely distributed shallow water benthic macroinvertebrates which constitutes around 56% population of pelagic macrofaunal in tidal creeks of the southeastern coast of the United States.

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