Toward Sustainable Environmental Quality : Priority Research Questions for Asia

Environmental and human health challenges are pronounced in Asia, an exceptionally diverse and complex region where influences of global megatrends are extensive and numerous stresses to environmental quality exist. Identifying priorities necessary to engage grand challenges can be facilitated through horizon scanning exercises, and to this end we identified and examined 23 priority research questions needed to advance toward more sustainable environmental quality in Asia, as part of the Global Horizon Scanning Project. Advances in environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry, biological monitoring, and risk-assessment methodologies are necessary to address the adverse impacts of environmental stressors on ecosystem services and biodiversity, with Asia being home to numerous biodiversity hotspots. Intersections of the food–energy–water nexus are profound in Asia; innovative and aggressive technologies are necessary to provide clean water, ensure food safety, and stimulate energy efficiency, while improving ecological integrity and addressing legacy and emerging threats to public health and the environment, particularly with increased aquaculture production. Asia is the largest chemical-producing continent globally. Accordingly, sustainable and green chemistry and engineering present decided opportunities to stimulate innovation and realize a number of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Engaging the priority research questions identified herein will require transdisciplinary coordination through existing and nontraditional partnerships within and among countries and sectors. Answering these questions will not be easy but is necessary to achieve more sustainable environmental quality in Asia. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1485–1505

The importance of scale : bioaccumulation of contaminants of emerging concern by bivalves.

Increasing urbanization presents unique challenges to sustainable environmental quality, particularly in urbanizing arid and semi-arid regions of the United States (U.S.). In urban areas, municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge treated effluent directly to streams, and total stream flow is often dominated by or dependent on wastewater effluent. As a result, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), which are present in wastewater effluent, are discharged directly to the receiving streams. This has led to a rapidly developing literature for environmental assessment and management of various down-the-drain contaminants. However, most environmental methods focus on measuring pharmaceuticals in water, sediments and fish. A large data gap exists for accumulation of CECs, including pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs), in bivalves. Filling this data gap is important because bivalves are valued both ecologically and economically; Bivalves are known to improve water quality via their capacity to filter particulate matter from the water column, and bivalve aquaculture operations support local economies and serve as an additional source of food. To capitalize on available suspended particulate matter, these aquaculture platforms are often located in wastewater treatment plant discharge areas, potentially exposing the bivalves to contaminants that can accumulate in their tissue. The results in this dissertation have filled several data gaps related to bioaccumulation of PPCPs by bivalves. First, results from a pilot study in Hong Kong showed that bivalves from both large-scale and small-scale aquaculture operations accumulated low levels of CECs. Second, results from a field-study in an effluent-dependent stream indicated that bivalves accumulated several different types of pharmaceuticals, in some cases reaching steady-state after 8 days exposure, and spatial differences were observed for some compounds, with highest observed concentrations for antidepressants. Third, results from an outdoor mesocosm experiment highlighted different uptake patterns for bivalves during the first 7 days of exposure to treated wastewater, and indicated that bivalves accumulated a greater number of pharmaceuticals when compared to fish in the same streams. Finally, results from a laboratory study highlighted different uptake and elimination patterns for two commonly detected pharmaceuticals

Toward Sustainable Environmental Quality: Priority Research Questions for Asia

Environmental and human health challenges are pronounced in Asia, an exceptionally diverse and complex region where influences of global megatrends are extensive and numerous stresses to environmental quality exist. Identifying priorities necessary to engage grand challenges can be facilitated through horizon scanning exercises, and to this end we identified and examined 23 priority research questions needed to advance toward more sustainable environmental quality in Asia, as part of the Global Horizon Scanning Project. Advances in environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry, biological monitoring, and risk-assessment methodologies are necessary to address the adverse impacts of environmental stressors on ecosystem services and biodiversity, with Asia being home to numerous biodiversity hotspots. Intersections of the food–energy–water nexus are profound in Asia; innovative and aggressive technologies are necessary to provide clean water, ensure food safety, and stimulate energy efficiency, while improving ecological integrity and addressing legacy and emerging threats to public health and the environment, particularly with increased aquaculture production. Asia is the largest chemical-producing continent globally. Accordingly, sustainable and green chemistry and engineering present decided opportunities to stimulate innovation and realize a number of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Engaging the priority research questions identified herein will require transdisciplinary coordination through existing and nontraditional partnerships within and among countries and sectors. Answering these questions will not be easy but is necessary to achieve more sustainable environmental quality in Asia. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1485–1505