This is a project that will be carried out from January to December 1995 during the first phase. Its objectives are mainly to survey the Yazoo River for contaminated sediment sites; to collect, identify, and catalog benthic organisms to select important bioturbators to be recovered and transplanted into laboratory microcosm; to identify sediment contaminants and perform chemical analysis and flux measurement experiments. It is expected that some sediment stabilizers (mucus-generating) and sediment destabilizing bioturbators will be recovered form the Yazoo River and used in performing laboratory experiments. The results of the flux measurement experiments will shed more light on phyicochemical transport process.
There is growing recognition of the risk contamination inflicts upon ecological communities. This study will be directed toward quantifying the increased flux of hydrophobic organics from contaminated sediment due to bioturbation by freshwater oligochaetes expected to be found in the Yazoo River bed and any other known and important bioturbators. The overall research mission of HSRC encompasses defining the chemical transport processes and the resulting exposure from contaminated sediments and dredged material with bioturbation being one of the most important of the transport processes. Our proposed study is an off shoot of the already established LSU project geared toward understanding the interaction of different types of feeders on the transport of contaminants from bed sediments and the need for remediation of the sediments. The project is therefore, related to the HSRCâs mission.
It is our hypothesis that the Yazoo River in Mississippi is/or should be one of the polluted water bodies or one of those containing hazardous wastes (and thus has contaminated sediments) which EPA is anxious to eliminate or remediate. This will be proven or tested.
The training potential for graduate and undergraduate students is far-reaching. The kind of students that will be selected for this project are science majors, Pre-engineering or Industrial Technology students who show prospects of furthering their education in an environmental science and/or chemical engineering discipline. The expertise that the PIs will gain through this project will better equip them to train students. It will help to inculcate in the students the importance of hazardous substance research. It will arouse the interest of the undergraduate students well enough to register for graduate studies in the area of environmental science and engage in research on hazardous substances. For graduate students, it will make them disposed to conduct their thesis research on hazardous substances and go on to work on their Ph.D. degree in environmental science or chemical engineering or more specifically in hazardous substance management. Through the kinesthetic training to be given, the students may become adept in the handling and use of sophisticated modern scientific equipment.