Accolades for and Summaries of the SETAC Best Papers
Jen Lynch, SETAC; Jenny Shaw, IEAM; and Erin Nelson, ET&C
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (ET&C) and Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management (IEAM) each bestow a best paper award annually for an article that was published in the prior volume year. We also review the shortlisted best papers from both journals to recognize the Best Student Paper, which is sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive. Throughout the year, editors nominate innovative or creative articles with transparent, reproducible, rigorous and relevant science. ET&C and IEAM convene a review panel comprising senior-level editors to rank the nominations against a rubric of factors and criteria. The Ecological Risk Assessment Interest Group likewise convenes a panel to further scrutinize the student papers. We thank the reviewers for their time and extensive efforts and congratulate the winners – the standards for this award are quite high.2020 SETAC Best Paper Award Winners
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
Sharon E. Hook Beyond Thresholds: A Holistic Approach to Impact Assessment Is Needed to Enable Accurate Predictions of Environmental Risk from Oil SpillsMathematical models that predict the environmental fate and effects of oil spilled in marine and coastal environments are widely used in planning the development of new oil fields and quantifying potential ecological damage after a spill has occurred. In this paper, Hook identifies the critical simplifying assumptions used in these models and compares model predictions to the observed effects of a wide variety of oil spills around the world. Predicted and observed effects were often greatly different, with the discrepancies being tied to assumptions about environmental partitioning, exposure routes, exposure duration, and sensitivities of different types of organisms. Hook identifies specific data gaps that should be addressed to improve models available to Australian environmental managers; however, the recommendations made can inform similar efforts in other regions of the world as well.
Hook’s paper notes that by pointing out what is lacking in current process of environmental risk assessment for oil spills, environmental managers will be better able to site oil fields and prepare for and mitigate future oil spill damage.
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Niranjana Krishnan Assessing Field-Scale Risks of Foliar Insecticide Applications to Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) Larvae Yang Zhang, Keith G. Bidne, Richard L. Hellmich, Joel R. Coats and Steven P. Bradbury For pesticide registration, terrestrial invertebrate ecotoxicity testing typically focuses on beneficial organisms living in the soil (e.g., earthworms, springtails, micro-organisms) and above-ground (e.g., honey bees, parasitic wasps, predatory mites). However, ecotoxicity testing with declining or endangered invertebrate species are rarely undertaken. Niranjana Krishnan and her co-authors addressed these gaps in understanding by developing test methods and toxicity data for the monarch butterfly, which was recently designated as a candidate species for listing under the US Endangered Species Act. They first determined the acute and chronic toxicity of a number of commonly used agricultural insecticides by undertaking both dermal and dietary exposure studies with different larval stages. Subsequently, toxicity data were compared with estimates of exposure. Key in their exposure assessment was the linking of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly with the growth and flowering of the host plant (common milkweed) and the timing of insecticide applications in different agricultural crops. Butterfly larval exposure in a milkweed habitat patches at different distances downwind of a sprayed field was estimated using pesticide spray drift modeling. Comparing insecticide-specific exposure and toxicity data provided estimates of risk associated with typical insecticide use patterns. This study is an excellent example integrating spatial and temporal patters of pesticide exposure with relevant, life-stage specific toxicity effects to support landscape-scale risk assessments for a butterfly species of conservation concern.2019 and 2020 Best Student Paper Winners
2019
Jackelyn Feehan and Joseph Monaghan Direct Measurement of Acid Dissociation Constants of Trace Organic Compounds at Nanomolar Levels in Aqueous Solution by Condensed Phase-Membrane Introduction Mass SpectrometryThe 2019 Best Student Paper award was intended to be recognized in 2020 but was delayed owing to COVID. We would like to congratulate Jackelyn Feehan and Joseph Monaghan, who were both undergraduates at the University of Victoria and directly involved with the work presented in the article.
2020
James Sanders Development of a Novel Equilibrium Passive Sampling Device for Methylmercury in Sediment and Soil PorewatersThe 2020 Best Student Paper winner is James Sanders, who was a student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County at the time of the submission.
Both Best Student Papers published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
The summaries of two Best Papers were originally published in IEAM and ET&C, respectively, and have been modified slightly and published in the Globe with permission. Please visit the SETAC awards website for more information about all three Best Paper Awards.Authors’ contact information: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]