Ecotoxicology and Environmental Quality

Owner	Bachelor Biologie
Coordinator	dr. M.H.S. Kraak
Part of	Exchange Programme Faculty of Science, specialisation BSc Biology, year 1Minor Earth and Ecology, year 1Bachelor Biologie, year 3Bachelor Bèta-gamma, major Biologie, year 3

Course manual 2020/2021

Course content

Research project practicals: Behavioral responses of freshwater snails to pharmaceuticals

The rate of increase in the production and diversification of pharmaceuticals has led to their worldwide occurrence in soils, biota, sediments, surface water, groundwater and drinking water. Pharmaceuticals are designed to induce a biological response at low concentrations, are continuously released into the environment and slowly degrade, leading to chronic exposure of non-target aquatic organisms. Hence, adverse effects on aquatic organisms are likely to occur, but remain poorly studied. The aim of the present project is therefore to determine the behavioral responses of freshwater snails to pharmaceuticals. To this end ecotoxicity tests will be performed, exposing the snails to concentration ranges of the selected pharmaceuticals, with survival, consumption and behavior as endpoints.

Further reading: OECD (2019). Pharmaceutical Residues in Freshwater: Hazards and Policy Responses, OECD Studies on Water, OECD Publishing, Paris.

Learning objectives Practicals:

• The ability to design, plan and perform laboratory ecotoxicity tests.
• The ability to interpret the results of laboratory ecotoxicity tests and to relate these to literature data.
• The ability to design a conference poster and to defend it during a poster session.

Study materials

Syllabus

• Environmental Toxicology: an open online textbook

  https://maken.wikiwijs.nl/147644/Environmental_Toxicology__an_open_online_textbook

Other

• During the course documents will be available on Canvas.

Objectives

• The ability to name the sources of environmental contaminants
• The ability to describe the fate of environmental contaminants
• The ability to explain the processes that determine the bioavailability and accumulation of environmental contaminants by organisms
• The ability to identify the modes of action of toxicants
• The ability to quantify the effects of environmental contaminants on organisms
• The ability to apply concepts and methods for assessing mixture toxicity
• The ability to analyse the effects of multiple stressors on organisms and ecosystems
• The ability to explain and apply biomonitoring, ecotoxicological risk assessment en environmental legislation
• The ability to critically evaluate the methods and techniques related to the above mentioned specific learning objectives and to propose recommendations for improvements

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Seminar
• Laptop seminar
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Self-study
• Supervision/feedback meeting

Lectures	30%
Tutorials	10%
Practical (experimental research)	35%
Self study	25%

Learning activities

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Participation in all practical (computer) sessions, field work and seminars in the curriculum is in principle obligatory. Any additional requirements are described per section in the course manual. Also the possible consequences of not fulfilling this obligation are described.
  

Additional requirements for this course:

Participation of all practicals and seminars is required before the final grade of the course can be awarded. Students who did not attend the practicals must attend these in the next academic year in order to complete the course. It is strongly recommended that students attend all lectures.

 

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
2 (67%) Tentamen
1 (33%) poster
Final grade after retake
2 (67%) Hertentamen
1 (33%) Poster

A 5.0 or higher must be obtained for the poster and for the exam. The weighted average (exam 67%; poster 33%) should be 5.5 or higher. The 33% of the final mark for the poster is made up of 28% for the poster itself and of 5% for the working attitude during the practical. The working attitude mark  is determined by mutual evaluation of the students within each practical group.

The posters are evaluated by a 'poster evaluating committee', made up of scientists who were not involved in the preparation of the posters. The poster evaluation form including all criteria concerned can be found on Canvas. In addition to the poster, the oral defense, mutual cooperation and work attitude during the practical are also included in the evaluation of the poster.

 

Assignments

Questionnaire

• The seminars are accompanied by a questionnaire. These will be discussed at the end of the regarding seminar.

Posterpresentation

• Conference posters regarding the experiments executed during the practicals will be produced by groups of five students. Deadline is on the third Friday of the course at 5 p.m.. Posters will be presented on the last Friday of the course. The best poster will be sent to an international conference.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

There is a maximum of 55 students for this course.

Processed course evaluations

Below you will find the adjustments in the course design in response to the course evaluations.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. M.H.S. Kraak