Monthly Archives: August 2018

Can soil bacteria clean up our toxic messes?

Thousands of sites across the US are contaminated with chemical solvents that have been used for decades in industrial processes. These solvents can leach into groundwater and create plumes up to several miles long. 1,4-dioxane, a probable human carcinogen, is often present in groundwater contaminant plumes because of its historical use in degreasing heavy machinery, but it’s also present in trace amounts in products as varied as laundry detergents, deicing agents, cosmetics, and even in food.

There’s good news and bad news here: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, enacted in 1980, established laws for the management and disposal of hazardous wastes, meaning new releases to the environment have diminished considerably. Decontamination of chlorinated solvents often involves pumping groundwater to the surface and removing the contamination through volatilization or adsorption. However, this process is expensive, time- and energy-consuming, and ineffective at removing some chemicals, like water-soluble 1,4-dioxane.

Some jobs require the help of friends. In this case, for Hannah Rolston, a fifth-year PhD student in the Department of Environmental Engineering working with Dr. Lewis Semprini, these friends are soil bacteria that are able to naturally degrade this carcinogen. Bioremediation, or the practice of putting these bacteria to work to degrade contaminants, offers some hope in cases like these. Sometimes they can degrade certain pollutants all by themselves (called natural attenuation), but when you’re dealing with carcinogens in areas with people nearby, you want to use an engineered approach to make sure this process goes as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Hannah explained to us that not all compounds are easily degraded by bacteria, and even though some will consume 1,4-dioxane as food, environmental concentrations are not enough to sustain their growth (though remain harmful to humans). To work around this, she has been using a strategy called cometabolism. This involves adding a different carbon source into the groundwater plume for the microbes to eat–ideally, one that will cause the bacteria to produce enzymes that not only degrade the food source, but the 1,4-dioxane as well. This can be tricky, and not only in an engineering sense: you need to know enough microbial metabolism to be sure they’re not converting the hazardous compound into something even worse.

Hannah collecting groundwater samples from test wells at the OSU motor pool.

Using soil samples from two contaminated sites in Colorado and California, Hannah and the Semprini group are using isobutane (yes, the same gas you use for your camp stove) to nourish the native microbial communities so that they produce a type of enzyme called a monooxygenase. She has observed the 1,4-dioxane levels decrease in these enrichments. Preliminary work shows the bacteria convert 1,4-dioxane all the way to carbon dioxide–completely benign compared to what we started with.

Hannah began her undergraduate at Seattle University as an international studies major interested in a career in diplomacy. Feeling her first year of humanities classes provided her a wide breadth of knowledge but didn’t give her applicable skills, she transferred to environmental engineering, where she became interested in groundwater and hazardous waste remediation. After graduation, she worked for the US Army Environmental Command, working with army installations across the country to comply with environmental regulations.. When the spreadsheets and desk work didn’t quite live up to its expectations, she knew it was time to seek out graduate programs where she could put her engineering background and interest in hazardous waste remediation to work.

When she’s not tricking microbes into consuming carcinogenic contaminants, Hannah can be found road biking and doing ceramics at the OSU craft center. She is also involved in the OSU Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering Graduate Student Association and the OMSI Science Communication Fellowship program. To hear more about her research and journey to graduate school, tune in to Inspiration Dissemination Sunday August 26th at 7pm on 88.7 FM, or download the podcast episode.

The Evolving Views of Plastic Pollution

Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and some studies suggest we still have over 91% of marine species that await discovery. Even as far back as 2010 some NASA scientists admit we knew more about the surface of Mars than we did about the bottom of our own oceans! Despite the fact we may not know everything about our oceans just yet, one thing is certain: plastics are becoming part of ecosystems that have never experienced it and we’re beginning to understand its massive impact. One estimate suggests that even if you had 100 ships towing for 10 hours a day, with 200 meters of netting and perfectly capturing every large and tiny piece of plastic, we could only clean up 2% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch every year. It would take 50 years to clean everything up, assuming we magically stopped using plastics on Earth. As one Nature research article suggests, the problems lies mostly with local municipalities; but that means with targeted local action, individuals can make a real difference and limit how much plastic makes it to our oceans. So you may be thinking “let’s tell all our friends these plastic facts and then everyone will stop using plastic, right?”. Not so fast, unfortunately a host of studies show just informing people about the scope of the problem doesn’t always make them change their behavior to ameliorate the problem in question.

Katy getting a seal kiss from Boots the harbor seal at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

Our guest this evening is Katy Nalven, a 2nd year Masters student in the Marine Resources Management program, who is using a community based social marketing approach to ask people not only IF they know about the problem of plastics in oceans, but she also seeks to understand how people think about this problem and what could be individual hurdles to decreasing plastic usage. Using a survey based approach administered at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Katy plans to examine a few specific communities of interest to identify how the views around plastic usage from Aquarium visitors and local community members may differ and hopefully where they overlap.

This community based social marketing approach has many steps, but it’s proven more effective in changing behaviors for beneficial outcomes rather than just mass media information campaigns by themselves. By identifying a target goal for a community of interest you can tailor educational material that will have the greatest chance of success. For example, if your goal is to decrease plastic usage for coastal communities in Oregon, you may find that a common behavior in the community you can target to have the greatest impact such as bringing your own mug to coffee shops for a discount, or automatically saying “no straw please” whenever going out to eat. Katy is beginning to pin down how these Oregon coast communities view plastic usage with the hope that a future student can begin implementing her recommended marketing strategies to change behaviors for a more positive ocean health outlook.

Hugs from Cleo, the Giant Pacific Octopus, at the Oregon Coast Aquarium

Katy grew up in the landlocked state of Arizona constantly curious about animals, but on a childhood visit to SeaWorld San Diego she became exposed to the wonders of the ocean and was wonderstruck by a close call with a walrus. Near the end of a Biology degree in her undergraduate years, simultaneously competing as an NAIA Soccer player for Lyons College, Katy was looking for career options and with a glimpse of her stuffed walrus she got at the San Diego Zoo, she decided to look at Alaska for jobs. After a few summers being a whale watching guide in Juneau, an animal handling internship in Florida, and then another internship in Hawaii Katy decided she wanted to formally revisit her science roots but with a public policy perspective. Oregon State University’s Marine Resource Management Program was the perfect fit. In fact, once she was able to connect with her advisor, Dr. Kerry Carlin-Morgan who is also the Education Director for the Oregon Coast Aquarium, Katy knew this was the perfect step for her career.

Meeting Jack Johnson at the 6th International Marine Debris Conference. He and his wife are the founders of the Kokua Hawaii Foundation whose mission is to “provide students with experiences that will enhance their appreciation for and understanding of their environment so they will be lifelong stewards of the earth.”

 

 

Be sure to tune in to Katy’s interview Sunday August 19th at 7PM on 88.7FM, or listen live, to learn more about her findings about how we view plastic pollution, and how we can potentially make local changes to help the global ecosystem.

Mobility is critical to social and cognitive development in children

Learning to crawl and walk affords children opportunities to explore their world. As such, early childhood mobility is intertwined with other formative childhood milestones, such as motor skill development and learning to negotiate social encounters. Disabled children who may have difficulty reaching mobility milestones, are thus at risk for missing out on opportunities for play and exploration that are critical to cognitive, social, and motor skill development. Samantha Ross, a PhD student in the Kinesiology, Adapted Physical Activity program within the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University, asks the question: how can we support the movement experiences of children with mobility disabilities to ensure they have equitable access to play, exploration and social encounters?

The experience of movement Ride-on cars are modified, child-sized, battery powered vehicles designed to support children with disabilities during play. The ride-on car is equipped with a large button to initiate movement, as well as structural modifications to enhance body support. As part of her research, Samantha observes children with and without disabilities participating in an inclusive play group. She monitors changes in the behavior of individual children, and video analysis helps her to track their distance traveled while using a ride-on car. Factors including whether the child initiated their own movement, if movement included interaction with a peer, or was motivated by a toy, all contribute to a child’s experience of mobility. The ride-on car facilitates the initiation of new relationships among children, noticeably reducing the barrier between children with and without disabilities and promoting equitable play experiences.

For more information about ride-on cars and to watch videos of the cars in action, visit the GoBabyGo website: https://health.oregonstate.edu/gobabygo

The impact of impaired mobility is nuanced Nearly thirty years of research has indicated that young children can benefit from powered mobility devices. However, the field is dominated by the medical perspective of reducing disability. In recent years, a major push from disability groups has emphasized the importance of community and social interactions in enhancing the well-being of children with disabilities. Mobility cannot be distilled down to simply moving from point A to point B, rather the self-perceived experience of movement and how movement facilitates encounters with people and objects is integral to children’s feelings of well-being. It is important for children to feel valued for their contribution. Samantha’s goal is to facilitate a social environment that enhances the well-being and development of children with disabilities, thereby promoting equitable access to a healthy and active childhood.

Following graduate school, Samantha would like to continue her involvement in research at one of the University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, representing a partnership between state, federal, academic, and disability communities. Samantha explains, “We need to hear from people with disabilities – we need everyone at the table for the system to work.” These centers provide the interface between policy and research, where priorities are weighed and decisions are made. Often headquartered at medical schools, the centers raise awareness and help train future healthcare professionals. Samantha would love to be involved in this discussion.

Join us on Sunday, August 5th at 7pm on KBVR Corvallis 88.7 FM or stream live to hear more about Samantha’s research. We will discuss other aspects of her research, as well, including her investigation of national surveillance reports, which provide insight about whether children’s service needs are being met, and how to identify children who could benefit from mobility assistive devices.