This ain’t your grandma’s watering hole

Exploring the U of M’s novel ecotoxicology research facility

PWRF researchers Chelsea Lobson and Adam Vanderpont take daily measurements. Photo by Dana Moore

Nestled at the back of campus on a finger of land surrounded by the Red River lies one of the University of Manitoba’s unique gems: the Prairie Wetland Research Facility (PWRF).

Hidden in plain sight, 20 neatly-arranged cattle watering tanks huddle together at the entrance to the university’s crop research facility. While unassuming, this outdoor laboratory is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Installed in 2011 by resident ecotoxicologist and U of M associate professor Mark Hanson, the mesocosms (the technical term for these model ecosystems) function as a research tool of the department of environment and geography’s Stress Ecology Group and comprise the only facility of its kind in the province.

Comprising natural sediments, a layer of water, and flora and fauna introduced from Manitoba’s Oak Hammock Marsh, each mesocosm of the PWRF aims to mimic a shallow wetland typical of the province’s prairie pothole region.

Allowing for the re-creation of small-scale aquatic ecosystems, mesocosms are self-contained while remaining open to the natural variation of real-world conditions. For studies that have environmental applications, they act as an intermediate step between strict lab and true field research.

Want to know what pesticides do to dragonfly populations? Use a mesocosm.

Need to understand how long it takes for pharmaceuticals to break down in waste-water treatment wetlands once they’re excreted by rural Manitobans? Use a mesocosm.

The PWRF has been a training ground for undergraduates, graduates, and post-doctoral fellows, with six unique studies conducted since 2011. These include projects observing the environmental behaviour and effects of contaminants as varied as sucralose, pesticide adjuvants, and antibiotic-resistant microbes.

Current research at the PWRF, a continuation of 2013 work on the insecticide thiamethoxam, is a collaboration between Hanson’s Stress Ecology Group and the University of Winnipeg’s Analytical Chemistry Group headed by professor Charles Wong, who explained, “You can’t duplicate an ecosystem in a beaker.”

The PWRF has allowed us to go beyond this lab restriction and investigate the fate of chemical contaminants under conditions that are a little bit closer to “the real world.”

Together, through the tracking of thiamethoxam’s fate and the responses of zooplankton (such as water fleas) and emergent insects (such as damselflies, dragonflies, and midges), the two groups are helping to characterize the potential direct and indirect effects of the controversial and common neonicotinoid crop insecticide.

Neonicotinoids are currently in the public eye for their suspected role in reducing honeybee populations; the work of the PWRF will help regulators better understand the risk these chemicals may pose to non-target organisms.

It is this aspect of the research that Hanson finds most rewarding.

“We do basic ecology-oriented research in our cosms, but we can also conduct robust science to inform decision-makers so that water quality is protected, all at the same time,” said Hanson.

Maintaining this global perspective while focusing on interests close to home, the PWRF can now add Manitoba wild rice to its list of species in its thriving plant community.

Seeded in September, wild rice is not only economically, ecologically, and culturally significant in the province, but may help to better understand ecosystem health.

Another locally-focused study with global applications is on the horizon for the PWRF. A 2015 collaboration with U of M hydrology assistant professor Genevieve Ali may give new insight into our flood-prone province’s hydrology by examining the effects of cattails on water uptake and release to the atmosphere.

This ability to host dynamic studies from myriad disciplines owes largely to the PWRF’s distinct design; bridging the gap from wet lab to wetland by allowing for the application of lab findings in “real world conditions.”

Though you might miss it unless you’re suffering the unfortunate fate of being assigned to the “B” Parking Lot, the PWRF stands as a visual reminder that novel research with direct environmental applications continues to flourish on campus.

The facility is a unique tool that has proven its ability to produce necessary and immediately useful data through collaborative sound science, bringing together researchers from across the province, country, and from international institutions alike.

“This facility is crucial to understanding the ecosystem dynamics of shallow wetland systems, their potential for wastewater treatment, and the effects contaminants may have on these ecosystems,” said Jonathan Challis, U of M chemistry PhD candidate and PWRF collaborator.

With multiple stressors affecting our changing environment daily, the need for robust data and environmental test systems is emergent and real. In response to this need, the PWRF’s innovative approach to research proves that necessity truly is the mother of invention.