Ecotoxicology Component
This program ended in June 2005.
The goal of this component is to define characteristics of environmental degradation in California and to develop and verify approaches designed to improve environmental quality through natural and anthropogenic remediation, reclamation and restoration efforts. The primary focus is on the transport, fate, exposure and effects of toxic compounds on ecosystems and ecosystem components
Self Description
The overall goal of the TSR&TP Lead Campus Graduate Training Program in Ecotoxicology is to train students in an interdisciplinary manner, augmenting their graduate group's disciplinary strengths, to produce a postgraduate professional who understands both the necessity and the reality of interdisciplinary research to formulate and implement approaches designed to sustain and improve environmental quality. The Ecotoxicology Program is located at UC Davis near the center of California's Central Valley. The Central Valley includes California's two largest rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin. These rivers meet at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and drain into the San Francisco Bay, which together form the largest estuary in the Western United States. Supplying drinking water for two thirds of California's citizens and irrigation water for over seven million acres of the most highly productive agricultural land in the world, the watershed has been the focus of competing interests - economic and ecological, urban and agricultural. With issues of habitat restoration being aimed at reducing threat of extinction of several native plants and animal species, with various options being considered for making the Delta a more reliable source of high-quality water, and with considerations being made to protect and strengthen a Delta levee system faced with a high risk of catastrophic failure, this watershed is envisioned as an ecosystem that can serve as the focus for a highly successful Lead Campus Graduate Training Program in Ecotoxicology. Student and faculty presentations, our annual retreat, and visiting speakers from other UC campuses and from Government laboratories provide a truly interdisciplinary forum promoting the understanding of multi-process environmental approaches necessary for the analysis of complex ecosystems. The TSR&TP Lead Campus Program in Ecotoxicology will directly impact California watershed policy and will have increased visibility with the growing demands on our water, air and land resources.
The primary focus of the Coastal component remains on the ecological consequences of pollutants, a focus which is motivated by the awareness that coastal marine and freshwater environments are not immune from adverse effects from pollutants. While maintenance of the ecological integrity of aquatic ecosystems is of great concern, the ecological risks posed by pollutants are not well known. Understanding more about the fate and ecological effects of chemicals introduced into aquatic ecosystems is fundamental to ensuring that these vital environments and their beneficial uses are not jeopardized. A more recent emphasis of the Coastal component is the complement to analyses of ecological impacts - that is, the remediation or mitigation of effects.
Ecotoxicology Links
Contact Information
For questions about this component of UC TSR&TP, please contact:
Michael Johnson, DirectorJohn Muir Institute of the Environment
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
mbjohnson@ucdavis.edu
Tom Young, Associate Director
Civil & Environmental Engineering
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
tyoung@ucdavis.edu
For administrative concerns, please contact:
Jennifer Nickell, Program ManagerJohn Muir Institute of the Environment
University of California
Davis, CA 95616
janickell@ucdavis.edu