This study was carried out to characterize ponds and aquaculture systems, and also to determine both the potential and actual impacts of pond aquaculture effluents on receiving stream quality in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of Ghana. Water, fish and macroinvertebrate samples were collected from upstream, downstream and nearby reference streams of, and questionnaires administered to, 32 farms. Total settleable solids were higher in ponds than reference streams (p = 0.0166); suspended solids was higher in ponds than reference streams (p = 0.0159) and upstream (p = 0.0361); and total phosphorus was higher in ponds than reference (p = 0.0274) and upstream (p = 0.0269). Total nitrogen was most clearly higher in ponds than all other locations: p = 0.0016, 0.0086 and 0.0154 for the differences between ponds and reference, upstream, and downstream respectively. BOD5 level was also higher in ponds than all locations (p = 0.0048, 0.0009, and 0.0012 respectively). Also, non-guarding fish species were more abundant in reference streams than downstream (p = 0.0214) and upstream (p = 0.0251), and sand-detritus spawning fish were less predominant in reference streams than upstream (p = 0.0222) and marginally less in downstream locations (p = 0.0539). A possible subsidy-stress response within study streams was also observed. Hence, ponds are potential sources of these water quality variables to receiving streams. Effluent-receiving streams, generally, were not much different from reference streams in terms of most the metrics of community structure and function used in the comparisons. Hence, even though receiving streams in Central Ghana may not be severely impacted by aquaculture effluents at the moment, the management of pond effluents will determine the scale of future impact. Vegetable, cereal, and livestock farming could serve as additional sources of fecal streptococci and coliform bacteria and nutrient-enrichment within the study area, besides aquaculture, and so these industries must also be included in efforts to minimize pollution of these streams. / Master of Science

La signature isotopique du plomb (Pb) et du mercure (Hg) a été étudiée dans les lichens épiphytes des Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Un échantillonnage intégré et spatialisé à l’aide d’un système d’information géographique (SIG) a été mis en place afin de prendre en compte la diversité du territoire (occupation des sols, forêts, agriculture, industries et zones urbaines). A méso-échelle (département des Pyrénées-Atlantiques), la composition isotopique permet de différencier les zones impactées par les activités anthropiques mais aussi de discriminer l’origine de la contamination qu’elle soit de type industrielle ou urbaine. A l’échelle locale, la signature isotopique du Hg et Pb dans des lichens et des mousses prélevés dans la forêt d’Iraty (zone frontalière Franco-espagnole) a permis d’évaluer le type de dépôts accumulés dans ces différents bioaccumulateurs atmosphériques et le potentiel de ce nouvel outil pour le suivi des dépôts atmosphériques dans les écosystèmes éloignés. Enfin, sur la zone mercurifère d’Almadén (Castella la Mancha, Espagne) la signature isotopique du Hg dans les lichens et les sédiments apparait comme un outil pertinent pour étudier le transfert du Hg provenant de l’extraction minière vers les hydrosystèmes et l’atmosphère. / The isotopic signature of lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg) was measured in epiphytic lichens from Pyrénées-Atlantiques. An integrated and spatialized sampling was developed using geographical information system (GIS) to take into account the diversity of the territory (land-use, forest, agriculture, industries and urban areas). At meso-scale (county, Pyrenees-Atlantiques) the isotopic composition allows to differenciate areas impacted by anthropegenic activities and discriminate the origin of the contamination that it of industrial or urban type. At local scale, the isotopic signature of Hg and Pb in lichens and mosses sampled in Iraty forest (Franco-Spanish border) allowed to evaluate the kind of atmospheric deposits in these atmospheric bio-monitors and the potential of this new tool for the monitoring of atmospheric depositsin remote ecosystems. Finally, on the mercurifere area of Almadén (Castella la Mancha, Spain) the isotopic fingerprint of Hg in lichens and sediments appears to be a relevant tool to study the transfer of Hg from mining activities to hydrosystems and atmosphere.

Le développement des approches robustes et non paramétriques pour l’analyse et le traitement statistique de gros volumes de données présentant une forte variabilité,comme dans les domaines de l’environnement et de la génétique, est fondamental.Nous modélisons ici des données complexes de biologie appliquées à l’étude du comportement de bivalves et à l’analyse de liaison génétique. L’application des mathématiques à l’analyse du comportement de mollusques bivalves nous a permis d’aller vers une quantification et une traduction mathématique de comportements d’animaux in-situ, en milieu proche ou lointain. Nous avons proposé un modèle de régression non paramétrique et comparé 3 estimateurs non paramétriques, récursifs ou non,de la fonction de régression pour optimiser le meilleur estimateur. Nous avons ensuite caractérisé des rythmes biologiques, formalisé l’évolution d’états d’ouvertures,proposé des méthodes de discrimination de comportements, utilisé la méthode des shot-noises pour caractériser différents états d’ouverture-fermetures transitoires et développé une méthode originale de mesure de croissance en ligne.En génétique, nous avons abordé un cadre plus général de statistiques robustes pour l’analyse de liaison génétique. Nous avons développé des estimateurs robustes aux hypothèses de normalités et à la présence de valeurs aberrantes, nous avons aussi utilisé une approche statistique, où nous avons abordé la dépendance entre variables aléatoires via la théorie des copules. Nos principaux résultats ont montré l’intérêt pratique de ces estimateurs sur des données réelles de QTL et eQTL. / The development of robust and nonparametric approaches for the analysis and statistical treatment of high-dimensional data sets exhibiting high variability, as seen in the environmental and genetic fields, is instrumental. Here, we model complex biological data with application to the analysis of bivalves’ behavior and to linkage analysis. The application of mathematics to the analysis of mollusk bivalves’behavior gave us the possibility to quantify and translate mathematically the animals’behavior in situ, in close or far field. We proposed a nonparametric regression model and compared three nonparametric estimators (recursive or not) of the regressionfunction to optimize the best estimator. We then characterized the biological rhythms, formalized the states of opening, proposed methods able to discriminate the behaviors, used shot-noise analysis to characterize various opening/closing transitory states and developed an original approach for measuring online growth.In genetics, we proposed a more general framework of robust statistics for linkage analysis. We developed estimators robust to distribution assumptions and the presence of outlier observations. We also used a statistical approach where the dependence between random variables is specified through copula theory. Our main results showed the practical interest of these estimators on real data for QTL and eQTL analysis.

Moravian-Silesian Region is a part of an area so called „small black triangle". It is an area of higher pollution caused by some kind of industrial zone. This region belongs to the most polluted atmosphere in the Czech Republic. The pollution is caused by various factors but the most negative one is metallurgic industry but also mine-mining, transport, and small local furnaces. To analyze pollution, the instrumental neutron activation analysis with analyzing of moss samples were used. The moss has rudimentary root system so it takes nutrients as well as heavy metals from the atmosphere. All irradiation has performed in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (FLNP) at the reactor IBR-2M. Two kinds of irradiation have been performed as short-term irradiation as long-term irradiation. Short-term irradiation took about 3 mins and then short-lived isotopes were measured for about 15 mins. The long-lived isotopes were measured twice after about 4 days for 30 mins and after 23 days for 90 mins after 3 days of irradiation. For long term irradiation, the cadmium-screened irradiation channel was used. For analyzation and data processing the software Genie 2000 as well as software developed at FLNP JINR were used. In sum, 43 samples of the terrestrial mosses (Hypnum cupressiforme, Pleurozium schreberi and Brachythecium rutabulum) were collected in autumn of 2015 in which the concentration of 38 elements were determined, including heavy metals. As a result, the factor analysis have been performed as well as maps analyzation.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) are a group of 209 ‘man-made’ chlorinated organic compounds that were widely used in the 20th century for a variety of industrial uses. PCBs were first commercially produced in the 1929 and were manufactured until the 1980s when their use was phased out due to environmental and human health risks. However, due to their widespread use and persistence they are ubiquitous in the environment and remain a contaminant of concern. The structural properties that determine the persistence of PCBs in humans were therefore elucidated by statistical analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). PCBs with chlorine bonding in the 2,5-and 2,3,6- positions (and 2- in di- and tri-chlorinated congeners) were rapidly biotransformed and so can be classed as episodic congeners whereas PCBs with chlorine bonding in the 2,3,4-, 2,4,5-, 3,4,5-, and 2,3,4,5- positions were more resistant to biotransformation and can therefore be classed as steady state congeners. A fundamental requirement of using PCB signatures for environmental fingerprinting is an effective analytical method capable of producing high resolution signatures from biological samples. An extraction and clean-up method was developed that was successfully applied to different biological matrices (blood and tissues). A two dimensional gas chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC-ToFMS) method was designed and optimised to provide a congener specific method capable of identifying 200 out of the 209 PCBs, with detection limits in human serum in the range of 1 to 10 ng g-1 lipid. The extraction and detection methods were used to determine the source of PCB contamination and age date exposure in workers at a transformer dismantling plant. A total of 84 different PCB congeners were identified in the sera of 30 workers with concentrations of the 7 indicator PCBs ranging from 1.2 - 39 μg g-1 lipid. Analysis of PCB signatures was able to distinguish recent from prolonged exposure and also identified an additional source of inhalation exposure in a subgroup of workers. Analysis of 12 different tissue types obtained from the common guillemot (Uria aalge) suggested a high degree of perpetuation between the PCB signature in different tissue types. This shows that comparative assessments can be undertaken between animals using different tissue types and that small (1 g) samples of blood can be used as a non-lethal sampling technique. The regional provenance of 25 wrecked Leach’s storm petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) was also determined using PCB signatures. Results from GCxGC-ToFMS analysis revealed distinctively different PCB signatures in birds from Canada and Europe. The findings reported in this thesis enhance our understanding of PCB signatures in the environment and show how they can be used effectively to age date and identify the source of exposure in humans and animals.

Understanding the short-and long-term impacts of a biomonitoring and exposure project and reporting personal results back to study participants is critical for guiding future efforts, especially in the context of environmental justice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate learning outcomes from environmental communication efforts and whether environmental health literacy goals were met in an environmental justice community. We conducted 14 interviews with parents who had participated in the University of Arizona's Metals Exposure Study in Homes and analyzed their responses using NVivo, a qualitative data management and analysis program. Key findings were that participants used the data to cope with their challenging circumstances, the majority of participants described changing their families' household behaviors, and participants reported specific interventions to reduce family exposures. The strength of this study is that it provides insight into what people learn and gain from such results communication efforts, what participants want to know, and what type of additional information participants need to advance their environmental health literacy. This information can help improve future report back efforts and advance environmental health and justice.

The objective of my project was to determine variability and representability of mercury in the urban environment of Umeå in northern Sweden, based on applying the methods of forest moss biomonitoring (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, ICP Manual). Mercury (Hg) is a commune pollutant in urban environments release to the atmosphere by anthropogenic activities. Industrial, traffic and incineration activities are the main sources of this element. Mercury is easily transported through the atmosphere and cycle through terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, trending to bioaccumulate in organisms. The aims of the study are: (1) determine the representability and variability of the method in a specific urban environment, based on more intensive analyses of a green area within the city boundaries of Umeå, northern Sweden. (2) influence of site-specific conditions on the concentration of mercury in mosses. (3) City-scale variability in relation to national forest moss biomonitoring data (IVL.se). Results of urban environment measurements do not differ much respect the values of mercury concentration obtained sampling mosses far from the city, but it is subject to many factors that can alter results of the study.  Most of these are meteorological factors and the difficulty of find green zones close to cities with the suitable conditions to find mosses and perform a property sampling process avoiding throughfall and litterfall. The conclusion is that the use of mosses is a representative and valuable method to obtaining information in an urban environment but is limited by mentioned factors.

Algae are important components of stream food webs and often used in biomonitoring assessments. Little is known regarding the factors that limit their abundance in streams of the VA Coastal Plain. The surficial geology of the Coastal Plain is predominately sandy deposits which comprise the dominant substrate in streams of this region. In a comparative study of five streams located near the VCU Rice Center, we quantified substrate composition, light availability, and nutrient concentrations to assess their relative importance in determining benthic algal abundance. The proportion of stream area comprised of hard substrates was a significant predictor of variation in benthic algal abundance (r²=0.66). An experimental component comparing algal colonization on artificial hard substrates (tile) to the natural substrate reinforced the importance of substrate stability. Hard substrates which included gravel and aggregated clay likely provided greater stability for algal colonization relative to sand and silt deposits, resulting in lower mortality from scouring and sedimentation. Incident solar radiation was a secondary factor affecting algal abundance with shaded streams exhibiting lower benthic chlorophyll. Where substrate and light conditions were favorable, relationships between benthic algal abundance and dissolved phosphorus concentrations were observed. Seasonal fluctuations were ameliorated by high light conditions and constant disturbances at sites lacking hard substrates which kept CHLa at consistently low levels. The mean proportion of FBOM C derived from benthic algae ranged from 10 to 24%. In spite of the consistently low observed benthic algal abundance at sandy unstable Coastal Plain streams, benthic algae are an important source of benthic organic matter.

Freshwater ecosystems are under increasing pressure from a variety of contaminants, including heavy metals from mining operations, which can have complex effects that are difficult to evaluate. To detect early warnings from elevated concentrations of metals, organisms are sought to be used as monitoring tools. For example, mouthpart deformities in Chironomid larvae have been proposed as a bioindicator of stress in aquatic environments. However, the frequency and cause of these deformations, and their sensitivity to different stressors remain uncertain. In this study, I evaluated the usefulness of mouthpart deformities as a tool to monitor the effects of heavy metals from mining in northern Sweden. To do this, the mouthparts of 3789 Chironomid individuals analyzed from 17 sites closely located to mining operations and tested against concentrations of metals and DOC in the water chemistry of lakes and rivers. The frequency of deformities ranged from 0.00 – 4.79 % across all sites. Metal concentrations ranged from ‘very low’ to ‘low’ based on biological effect risk assessments. Of these, copper (R2 = 0.73) and cobalt (R2 = 0.66) were found to be significantly correlated with frequency of deformities. Additionally, the occurrence of deformities declined with DOC concentration, this was a nonlinear relationship. Frequencies of deformities observed in this study were lower than what have been reported to similar studies. The result from this study, together with other studies, suggest that deformities in Chironomid larvae are sensitive to even low levels of certain metals and could potentially be a good biomonitoring tool for early warnings of contamination in freshwater environments.

Copper (Cu) is a heavy metal that is essential for life but toxic at high concentrations. This toxic effect is used on boats to prevent biofouling on boat hulls by painting the hulls with antifouling paint that contain high levels of Cu. The Cu is slowly diffused out in the water and accumulated by animals higher up in the food chain. In order to test the effects of marinas on Cu bioaccumulation in invertebrates, I sampled molluscs at seven marinas and seven shore sites on the Swedish west coast. Two molluscs with different feeding behaviours, one grazer, the periwinkle (Littorina littorea) and one filter feeder, the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) were used as study organisms. Both species were sampled at each location within 50 m from each other. Body Cu concentration of both species was measured with a Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (FAAS). Cu concentration of periwinkle soft body tissue was generally higher than in mussel soft body tissue. In addition, periwinkle tissue Cu concentration reacted strongly positively to the presence of marinas, whereas mussel tissue Cu concentrations did not. This shows that contamination from marinas affects the grazing periwinkle but not the filter feeding blue mussel. Thus, for biomonitoring purposes, grazers may be more suited as indicator organisms.