Road salt guidelines need review to protect food chain in lakes: York U study

Salt used for winter road maintenance in Canada could wipe out water flea populations, according to the researchers

2015-04-09

(Press-News.org) TORONTO, April 9, 2015: Salt used for winter road maintenance in Canada could wipe out water flea populations that keep our lakes clear of algae and feed the fish, a recent York University study has revealed. "These water fleas are like little living lawnmowers in our lakes. They 'graze' the entire volume of lakes many times during the summer, passing what they've eaten up the food chain to fish," explains Professor Norman Yan, to stress the importance of the water flea's role in the ecosystem. The study, conducted at Yan's lab in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, suggests that lake and highway authorities consider adjusting road salt use protocols to protect aquatic life such as the water flea, by taking the nutritional status of the lakes into account. In particular, the study suggests revising the Water Quality Guideline for chloride, especially for lakes near winter-maintained roads on the Canadian Shield that tend to have very low nutrient levels. "Considering both the algal concentrations in lakes near the highways, not just road salt application rates, will ensure that aquatic life is not damaged by winter road maintenance," notes Yan. According to the researchers, animals used in lab-based bioassays almost always have abundant food, but in nature, they rarely do. "If the sensitivity to road salt is influenced by how well-nourished the animals are, the current water quality guideline would not protect aquatic life," points out Yan. "To study the difference, we reared Daphnia (water flea species) in the lab across a range of both chloride levels and food levels," says lead author Arran Brown. "That is, a range of algal concentrations from levels as low as in most of Canada's lakes to high levels normally seen only in nutrient-rich lakes and used in most lab-based bioassays." Brown adds, "We found a direct relationship between how well fed the animals were and their sensitivity to road salt. The less food they had, the more sensitive they were to the chloride." The study titled Food Quality Affects the Sensitivity of Daphnia to Road Salt, which was published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science & Technology, found that at food concentrations below 0.6 mg of carbon per litre, chloride concentrations below the current Canadian Water Quality Guideline were lethal to the daphnia.

INFORMATION:

York University is helping to shape the global thinkers and thinking that will define tomorrow. York U's unwavering commitment to excellence reflects a rich diversity of perspectives and a strong sense of social responsibility that sets us apart. A York U degree empowers graduates to thrive in the world and achieve their life goals through a rigorous academic foundation balanced by real-world experiential education. As a globally recognized research centre. York U is fully engaged in the critical discussions that lead to innovative solutions to the most pressing local and global social challenges. York U's 11 faculties and 25 research centres are thinking bigger, broader and more globally, partnering with 280 leading universities worldwide. York U's community is strong - 55,000 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and more than 275,000 alumni.

Media Contact: Gloria Suhasini, York University Media Relations, 416 736 2100 ext. 22094, suhasini@yorku.ca

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Epigenomic changes play an important role during the progression of melanoma

2015-04-09

KU Leuven researchers have zeroed in on what makes cancer cells in melanoma so aggressive. They also succeeded in taming the effect in cell cultures. Melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is notoriously quick to metastasize and responds poorly to existing cancer treatments. In their study, published in Nature Communications, the researchers report a significant step forward in the characterization and potential treatment of melanoma. Human DNA contains genetic information that makes our cells functional entities within a larger whole. The stream of information from DNA to ...

Lights tuned to birds' eyes may help reduce bird-aircraft collisions

2015-04-09

Collisions with birds are one of the most common hazards to aircraft, causing $700 million in damage annually in the U.S. A study published this week in The Condor: Ornithological Applications may have important implications for reducing bird strikes through the customization of aircraft and runway lights to birds' visual systems. Megan Doppler and Esteban Fernández-Juricic of Purdue University and Bradley Blackwell and Travis DeVault of the National Wildlife Research Center's Ohio Field Station conducted experiments involving captive cowbirds and remote-controlled ...

A downward trend for new cases of pediatric melanoma

2015-04-09

Cincinnati, OH, April 9, 2015 -- Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer that has been increasing in incidence in adults over the past 40 years. Although pediatric melanoma is rare (5-6 children per million), most studies indicate that incidence has been increasing. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that the incidence of pediatric melanoma in the United States actually has decreased from 2004-2010. Laura B. Campbell, MD, and colleagues from Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals (UH) Case ...

Increased levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes correspond to onset of fracking

2015-04-09

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers say that levels of radon in Pennsylvania homes - where 42 percent of readings surpass what the U.S. government considers safe - have been on the rise since 2004, around the time that the fracking industry began drilling natural gas wells in the state. The researchers, publishing online April 9 in Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that buildings located in the counties where natural gas is most actively being extracted out of Marcellus shale have in the past decade seen significantly higher readings ...

We may be looking at wrong mutation for breast cancer treatment

2015-04-09

A leading gene candidate that has been the target of breast cancer drug development may not be as promising as initially thought, according to research published in open access journal Genome Medicine. Mutation in the gene PIK3CA is the second most prevalent gene mutation in breast cancer and is found in 20% of all breast cancers. This has led people to think these changes may be driving breast cancer. Yet these mutations are also known to be present in neoplastic lesions -pre-cancerous growths many of which are thought to be benign, that have not invaded the surrounding ...

Genetic screening could improve breast cancer prevention

2015-04-09

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 8-APR-2015 19:00 ET (8-APR-2015 23:00 GMT) A test for a wide range of genetic risk factors could improve doctors' ability to work out which women are at increased risk of developing breast cancer, a major study of more than 65,000 women has shown. Improving the accuracy of risk analysis using genetic screening could guide breast cancer prevention in several ways - for instance by offering high-risk women increased monitoring, personalised advice and preventative therapies. The research, a collaboration of hundreds of research institutions led ...

New understanding of electromagnetism could enable 'antennas on a chip'

2015-04-09

A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge have unravelled one of the mysteries of electromagnetism, which could enable the design of antennas small enough to be integrated into an electronic chip. These ultra-small antennas - the so-called 'last frontier' of semiconductor design - would be a massive leap forward for wireless communications. In new results published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the researchers have proposed that electromagnetic waves are generated not only from the acceleration of electrons, but also from a phenomenon known as ...

Sex crimes more common in certain families

2015-04-09

New research from Sweden's Karolinska Institutet in collaboration with Oxford University, UK, shows that close relatives of men convicted of sexual offences commit similar offences themselves more frequently than comparison subjects. This is due to genetic factors rather than shared family environment. The study includes all men convicted of sex crime in Sweden during 37 years. "Importantly, this does not imply that sons or brothers of sex offenders inevitably become offenders too", says Niklas Langstrom, Professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet ...

Rise of UK food banks linked to local spending and central welfare cuts

2015-04-09

The expansion of food banks across the United Kingdom is associated with cuts in spending on local services, welfare benefits and higher unemployment rates, conclude researchers in The BMJ this week. In collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Rachel Loopstra and David Stuckler at the Department of Sociology at Oxford University and colleagues say action is needed "on the root social and economic factors that trigger reliance on food banks." The number of local authorities with food banks operated by the Trussell Trust, a non-governmental ...

Study finds one of the most accurate ways of determining chances of IVF success

2015-04-08

Accurately predicting the probability of a live birth after in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment is important for both those undergoing the treatment and their clinicians. Findings from a comparison study that analysed the accuracy of the two most widely-used prediction models are published today [08 April] in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers at the universities of Bristol and Glasgow compared how well the Templeton method and IVFpredict -- two personalised prediction tools that help couples calculate their chance of a successful birth with IVF treatment - worked ...