Veerle Lambert and Sylvie Bauwens were nominated for their extraordinary work coordinating the Centre for Environmental Science and Technology (website CES&T). Through their passion and efforts, they have made it to the short list for the Hermes award for Science and Social Service. Irrespective of the outcome, heartfelt congratulations to Veerle and Sylvie from all of us at GhEnToxLab.
Laboratory of Environmental Toxicology and Aquatic EcologyEnvironmental Toxicology Unit - GhEnToxLab
Ghent University - Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
News
Published on December 18, 2014
Published on December 3, 2014
GhEnToxLab-member, Maarten De Rijcke, has joined the expert group of ambassadors of sea research. These ambassadors communicate regularly the on the marine scientific research that's being conducted aboard the RV Simon Stevin. Using social media, the Flanders Marine Institute aims to improve the accessibility of marine research to the general public.GhEnToxLab supports this initiative full-heartedly. Today, our research on harmful algal blooms was featured on the facebook page of the RV Simon Stevin (dutch).
Published on November 10, 2014
At this very moment, SETAC North America is hosting the 35th edition of their annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada. This Thursday the 13th of November, Prof. Dr. Karel De Schampelaere (head of GhEnToxLab / SETAC Europe Council member) will chair the brand new EVOGENERATE working group at this event. Despite the growing evidence that organisms modulate their tolerance towards stressors across subsequent generations, most Ecological Risk Assessment approaches fail to assess the impact of chemicals beyond a single generation.
Published on November 3, 2014
As any other UGent laboratory, education stands firmly rooted among our other core activities. For starters, our senior scientists provide lectures on Ecological Risk Assessment (I001293; I001975; I001974), Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecology (I000482), Aquatic Ecology (I001291), Integrated Assessment of Water and Sediment Quality (I001934), Introduction to Ecotoxicology and Risk Assessment (E078060), Environmental Ecology (I001349) and Ecotechnology (I001130).
Published on October 3, 2014
This French documentary (airing October 7th, 22h55, France 2) investigates our plastic consumption and it's consequences. We're addicted to the stuff, but the biggest victim of our consumerism is the sea. Our seas and oceans are littered with tonnes of plastic, some of it so small it is invisible to the naked eye. These microplastics can be so small they are readily ingested by organisms at the base of the food chain. But, with this fact, new questions arise. Did plastics enter our food chain? Do we ingest them as well? Are we contaminated by the plastics that are so ubiquitously present in our daily life? This documentary will answer these questions and more, based on the research performed at GhEnToxLab. For more information click here
Published on October 1, 2014
Recently a harmful algae bloom made Lake Erie's water temporarily undrinkable in Toledo and surrounding towns in northwest Ohio. Over the last 50 years harmful algal blooms have been a regular occurrence in Lake Erie, with peak concentrations in late summer months. Such harmful algal blooms are commonly produced by cyanobacteria and not only impact water quality but they also have the potential to produce toxins that can harm humans, pets and wildlife. The blooms are caused by a combination of factors that promote high densities and reproduction of algae, one major factor being warmer temperatures. Therefore climate change has been linked to the global expansion of cyanobacteria through changes in temperature.
Published on September 30, 2014
Due to the multitude of negative effects on the environment and human health, the environmental fate and toxicity of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are of a global concern. In one of our recent publications, we reported that the international efforts to reduce PCB emissions have effectively reduced concentrations in open water ecosystems like the Belgian coastal zone.
Published on September 22, 2014
Due to their extensive use, continuous discharge and inefficient removal by wasterwater treatment plants, increasing levels of antibiotics are commonly detected in surface waters. Even though environmental levels are generally low, it has been shown that long-term exposure may adversely affect aquatic organisms. As such, there is an urgent need to improve classical water treatment techniques.
Published on September 13, 2014
Today, September 15th, is the start of the second international Environmental Omics (iEOS) Conference in Liverpool, UK. The iEOS conference and the Environmental Omics Synthesis Centre was founded to bring together people, ideas, research fields and organisations using omics approaches to advance environmental sciences. The EOS and the conference are funded through the Natural Environmental Research Council and the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.
Published on August 20, 2014
The biotic ligand model (BLM) is a bioavailability model for metals based on the concept that toxicity depends on the concentration of metal bound to a biological binding site; the biotic ligand. Here, we evaluated the BLM to interpret and explain mixture toxicity of metals (Cu and Zn). The mixture toxicity of Cu and Zn to barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was tested with a 4 days root elongation test in resin buffered nutrient solutions.