| My goal is to develop the use of stickleback as a powerful new model for testing the genetic and hormonal effects of river pollution in Central Oregon. Recent rapid growth of human populations in Bend and the associated large scale human impacts on Central Oregon lakes and rivers raise important questions about the effects of human impacts on watershed ecology and biodiversity, and the effects of these changes in water quality on all vertebrate (including human) health, disease, and development. Scientists studying human impacted water systems are increasingly turning to the use of aquatic model organisms as a proxy for the effects of chemicals and hormone mimics on biodiversity and vertebrate (including human) health and development following exposure to contaminated water. The presence of the threespine stickleback in these water systems creates a rich opportunity for studying the effects of human impacts on these rivers. An emerging model organism for ecotoxicology and development genetics, the stickleback is also a classic model organism for population genetics and ecology studies (Bell and Foster 1994; Bernhardt and von Hippel 2008; J J Gravenmier et al. 2005; Josh J Gravenmier et al. 2005; Petersen et al. 2015). My research aims to address applied environmental conservation/rehabilitation questions, basic science questions of the effects of water quality on vertebrate health, disease, and developmental genetics (ecotoxogenomics), and also to harness the stickleback system as a teaching and outreach tool for OSU Cascade undergraduate, and K-12 students in the Bend, Oregon area. |
