<p>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of emerging global contaminants used in a variety of industrial processes and consumer products, such as personal care products and fast-food wrappers. However, due to their carbon-fluorine bonds, these chemicals resist degradation and persist in the environment. PFAS toxicity is driven by a compound’s functional group and chain length with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (GenX) being of focal concern due to their toxicity to wildlife and presence in the environment. Despite growing concern regarding these contaminants, inadequate attention has been given to evaluating what organismal characteristics influence uptake and depuration of these chemicals, such as life stage and sex. <em>Xenopus laevis</em> tadpoles are a useful model to assess the influence of sex on PFAS kinetics since they have a life history that includes a gill to lung transition. Previous studies have shown that air-breathing organisms depurate PFAS more slowly than water-breathing organisms, but this relationship has never been directly tested. Sex has been shown to be an important factor in the depuration of PFOA for rats, with female rats depurating PFOA in four hours while males depurate in four days. The early portion of bioaccumulation curves are also understudied even though tadpoles accumulate PFAS rapidly, reaching steady state within 48 hours of exposure. <em>Xenopus laevis</em> are used to study multiple endpoints for endocrine disrupting chemicals including PFAS. Despite this, toxicity reference values (TRVs) have not been described for the uptake and elimination of PFAS using <em>X. laevis</em>. To address these gaps in knowledge, I first developed TRVs for <em>X. laevis</em> tadpoles exposed to PFOA throughout metamorphosis and evaluated the influence of sex on phenotypic endpoints. Results showed a no observed effect concentration (NOEC) of 11.1 ppm for body mass at day 14 and no effect of sex on apical endpoints. Next, I described the early bioaccumulation of four PFAS with differing structure (chain lengths and functional groups). PFOS was the only chemical to bioaccumulate with a log bioconcentration factor (BCF) at 10 and 1,000 ppm of 1.33 and 1.18, respectively. PFHxS, PFOA, and GenX had BCFs less than 0. Finally, I examined the impact of life-stage and sex on <em>X. laevis</em> tadpole and juvenile depuration rates. Larval tadpoles depurated four times faster than juveniles, indicating a significant effect of life stage on elimination rates. Sex had no influence on elimination rates. These are the first studies conducted evaluating the significance of life stage and sex in toxicokinetics of PFAS in amphibians.</p>

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<p dir="ltr">Nutrients are essential to support fish production in aquatic systems but are detrimental in excess. To that end, the relationship between nutrient loading and fish biomass is hypothesized to be unimodal. In the mid-20^th century, numerous aquatic systems in North America and Europe were receiving excessive nutrients and were considered heavily degraded as a result. Since then, nutrient abatement programs have resulted in increased fish biomass in many systems throughout the two continents. However, few systems have complete records of fish biomass and nutrient loading to offer support for both sides of the unimodal fishery production curve. In Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron, total phosphorus estimates are available back to when nutrient abatement programs were first implemented in the system in the 1970s. In addition, a long-term fall bottom trawling dataset from an annual monitoring survey conducted by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has indexed fish biomass and composition since 1970. In Chapter 2, we utilize these datasets to analyze trends in system-wide fish biomass as well as fish community trends since 1970 in response to continued nutrient abatement. We found increasing fish biomass from 1970 until the early 2000s concurrent with total phosphorus declines. However, more recently, we documented declines in system-wide fish biomass with reduced nutrient loads. We found planktivorous and benthivorous fish species displayed similar initial increases in biomass followed by more recent declines in biomass. However, we determined current total phosphorus loading was still sufficient to support piscivore biomass near peak levels.</p><p dir="ltr">While nutrients in Saginaw Bay are lower than at times in the past, the system is still highly productive. One consequence of productive systems is increased susceptibility to hypoxia, or low dissolved oxygen that can result from organic matter decomposition. Past studies have documented hypoxic conditions in Saginaw Bay in the summer and over-winter period. However, past studies have been limited in scale and have not estimated the extent or duration of hypoxia throughout the Saginaw Bay system. With climate change expected to increase the occurrence of hypoxia throughout the Laurentian Great Lakes, knowledge of dissolved oxygen dynamics in the system is becoming progressively more important. In Chapter 3, we used an array of high frequency data loggers deployed throughout inner Saginaw Bay over two summer and over-winter periods to document dissolved oxygen conditions. We also analyzed a time series dataset of bottom oxygen and environmental parameter measurements to determine the conditions that contribute to low dissolved oxygen in the bay. Further, through stable isotope analysis we investigated whether hypoxic conditions had an effect on the carbon and nitrogen (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) isotopic signatures of chironomid larvae, an important basal prey item in Saginaw Bay. We found instances of seasonal hypolimnetic hypoxia in the summers of 2021 and 2022 but normoxic conditions throughout the over-winter periods following each summer. We also determined bottom water and wind speed to be the most reliable predictors of low dissolved oxygen since 2011, indicating the temporary stratification that can occur during warm, calm summer periods likely precedes the development of hypoxic conditions in Saginaw Bay. Chironomid δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values were highly variable, but some individuals displayed very low values, indicative of hypoxia exposure.</p>

The interactions between parasites, hosts, and the ecosystems they live in are complex and diverse. This can make predicting how they will respond to pressures like nutrient enrichment difficult. However, this endeavor is important, due to the far-reaching effects it has on ecosystems functioning, industries like aquaculture, and even human health. Even with the significance of this topic, there are key parts of the picture that have received little research attention. For this reason, I chose to study the effects of nutrient enrichment on parasite-host interactions at two different scales, first investigating the interaction directly between parasites and their host, and then manipulating experimental ponds to look at trophic effects. Using the theory of ecological stoichiometry as a conceptual framework allowed for comparison across the two investigations. In both studies, I used largemouth bass and the macro parasites of their digestive tract as my study system, due to the importance of largemouth bass as sport fish, their high trophic status, and diverse parasite assemblages. My first study examined the effects of eutrophication on parasite-host interactions occurring within the host. It centered on four hypotheses: 1) the nutrient content of different host tissues (infection sites) varies within and across hosts, 2) the nutrient contents of parasite genera differ from that of their host tissue(s), 3) the nutrient contents of parasite genera differ from one another, and 4) nutrient availability within specific host tissues is related to the nutrient content and abundance of parasite genera within tissues. I quantified the nutrient content (carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorous (P) and their ratios) of parasitic infracommunities in the tissues of the liver, stomach, pyloric caeca, intestines, and visceral mesentery of 30 largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides). I found stoichiometric variation across host tissues and that fish collection site explained variation in pyloric caeca N:P ratios. Parasitic genera differed in their nutrient content with actively feeding parasite forms having higher %N and lower C:N ratios than encysted/non-reproductive forms. In addition, the %C of both actively feeding parasites varied across organs, and, for one genus, this variation reflected differences in host tissue %C. Finally, I found that the total number of actively feeding parasites in the pyloric caeca increased with that tissue’s N:P ratio. My results suggest that parasites encounter significant variation in nutrient availability within and across hosts, and that this variation can influence the nutrient content and abundance of some actively feeding parasites within specific tissues. To determine if the effects from my first study were a result of nutrient changes to host tissues or if they were an artifact of changes occurring at other trophic levels caused by nutrient addition, I conducted an experimental manipulation of a short trophic system. I applied two treatments, a fertilized treatment and a control, to 14 ponds stocked with largemouth bass. I hypothesized that adding a low N:P fertilizer to the ponds would result in fewer parasites in the pyloric caeca of the bass in accordance with findings from my previous work. Alternatively, I hypothesized that indirect changes to intermediate hosts would be responsible for changes in parasite abundance. To measure the effects of nutrient additions on multiple trophic levels, samples of fine particulate organic matter (FPOM), benthic invertebrates, and vertebrate prey were taken from each pond. Stocked bass were retrieved and dissected to obtain samples for nutrient analysis from their pyloric caeca, and to quantify parasite abundances. My treatment was able to affect the %P, C:N, C:P, and N:P of the FPOM in the ponds. Benthic invertebrate biomass was negatively correlated with FPOM %P. I did not find a direct effect of benthic invertebrates on vertebrate prey species, but fertilized ponds had a smaller decrease in the number of vertebrate prey over the course of the experiment. Counterintuitively, the %N of the pyloric caeca of fish in the fertilized ponds decreased, and the %C and C:N increased in relation to the number of vertebrate prey, but %P did not change. The treatment status of the pond and the nutrients of the pyloric caeca did not affect the number of parasites that were found, but parasite numbers were positively associated with prey fish. This result would suggest the number of intermediate hosts, in this case, prey fish, is the determining factor for parasitic loads in the bass I collected. The indirect effects of trophic interaction and the direct effects of changes to host and parasite dynamics both play important roles in predicting the outcome of eutrophication on disease. The conflicting results of these two studies highlight the need for in-depth knowledge of the systems being affected by nutrient additions.

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