The aim of this project is to determine which physical features of textiles increase fibre release during washing, so they can be reengineered to minimise environmental impacts, improving the quality of bioresources such as effluent water and biosolids.

Thesis underway.

The occurrence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) in various environmental media is of great concern due to their potential adverse effects on living organisms. This project aims to investigate the feasibility of natural-occurring foams in aeration tanks for removal of PFAs and other contaminants of emerging concern from sewage.

PhD Thesis underway by Angel Chyi En We.

project description goes here

Intertidal marine environments are highly valued for their ecosystem services, yet it is often unclear whether productivity within sandy beaches and rocky shores is driven by nutrients derived from terrestrial, marine or in situ sources. This project utilised stable isotopes to trace nutrients derived from  key sources and determine their spatial and temporal fate in intertidal beaches and rocky shores.

Honours Thesis completed by Angus Lachlan Noel Fanning in November 2015.

This project Identified the promising biomarkers shown to be capable for distinguishing between infectious and non-infectious Cryptosporidium oocysts as well as identify species that can/cannot infect humans. A select few candidates were developed into a new PCR based assay capable of identifying a single infective oocyst as well as simultaneously determine the oocyst species/genotype with a rapid turnaround time between 6-8 hrs of oocyst sample receipt (i.e. same day reporting).

Honours Thesis completed by Michael A. Webber in November 2011.

Blue-green algae reduce water quality, especially when they produce toxins. Each algal cell can grow, reproduce all its DNA, and split into two ‘daughter’ cells, then those two ‘daughter’ cells produce four more until the numbers of algal cells bloom to extremely high numbers. High algal growth rates are associated with favourable environmental conditions (for the algae), stationary growth rates occur when the production of new cells is about the same as the number of dying cells, and if more cells die than are reproduced, the growth rate declines. The ability to predict or measure which of these three population growth rates is prevalent, and how much toxin is being produced, is information that the water industry needs to select the best methods for treating water. This project analysed the amount of DNA, and some specific sequences of DNA which correspond to the genes coding for toxins; and related the DNA analysis to actual counts of cells and measurements of toxin in water samples. This allowed the development of an improved and more informative technique for forecasting and monitoring toxic blue-green algae blooms.

The environmental conditions which cause blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) blooms vary according to location, the climate, and other attributes of aquatic ecosystems. This variety has made it difficult to develop one broadly applicable predictive model for cyanobacterial blooms. Water utilities monitor source waters to implement cyanobacterial risk management programmes but there are no standard protocols while limited information transfer between utilities has prevented the identification of management strategies that do or do not work. This research reviewed literature about early warning systems (Almuhtaram et al., 2021) and source control strategies, conducted a survey of 35 utilities in America and Canada (74%) and Australia (Kibuye et al., 2021) and evaluated selected control strategies. These different types of information were synthesised into decision trees within an overarching guidance document. It was concluded that a 3-tier framework to detect algal blooms which monitored biological activity, then confirmed the identification of cyanobacterial genes and associated metabolites gave sufficient early warning, while multi-barrier control strategies gave field-scale efficacy and enabled timely responses.

Every day, Australians produce ~5 billion litres of wastewater, which contains a cocktail of chemicals. Industries that discharge wastewater are required to assess chemical risks to the receiving environments by conducting whole animal direct toxicity assessments (DTAs), which are expensive and pose an ethical dilemma. Our preliminary research shows that new in vitro bioassays provide an ethical and cost effective alternative that could be incorporated into DTA programs if their ecological relevance can be demonstrated. This project will develop and validate a new and internationally significant suite of in vitro bioassays for incorporation into DTA programs, leading to more ethical, cost effective and improved environmental protection.

Several cyanobacteria species are well known for their potential to produce cyanotoxins. However, not all genotypes of known toxin producing species produce cyanotoxins and of these there is significant variation in the spatial and temporal dynamics of toxin production. The water industry currently relies of observational measurement of the presence of ‘potentially toxic species’, toxin gene and toxin presence to inform management of cyanobacteria blooms in water supply storages. Predictive tools and preventative management are limited by a lack of simple environmental predictors to predict toxin production events. Understanding the drivers for toxin production that inform risk management frameworks would be of great benefit to water supply managers and to inform alternate management options. These tools would enable better responses to bloom events and allowing for the establishment of pre-emptive measures to minimize cyanotoxin production by targeted manipulation of environmental drivers.