I came to the USGS in September 2002 as a postdoctoral fellow to study the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of metals in freshwater food webs. My work focused on understanding how metals are transferred through food webs and how trophic position in a food web influences exposure to metals. I used nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes to show that cadmium, in contrast to copper, could be magnified along certain freshwater food webs. This suggests that processes that drive Cd trophic transfer are more complex than that of organo-metals, metalloids and organic contaminants.
In addition to my work on metal trophic transfer, I refined an approach that involves the use stable metal isotopes (rather than radioisotopes) to describe accumulation and loss dynamics in freshwater invertebrates. Characterization of bioaccumulation dynamics is critical to understanding risks associated with contaminant exposure in organisms. For instance, this tracing technique allowed showing that a slow rate constant of loss for Cu likely explains the elevated levels of this toxic trace metal found in molluscs in nature, and that diet is an important bioaccumulation pathway for metals for several aquatic species.
I used biodynamic modeling and the enriched stable isotope tracers in novel ways to understand the fate and effects of nanosized metals in aquatic organisms as well as toinvestigate how the geochemical properties of mineral particles consumed by organisms affect their bioavailability.
Education:
PhD. 2002. Water and Environmental Sciences, University of Quebec (INRS-ETE), Canada
Influence of temperature and biological processes on Cd bioaccumulation in the aquatic insect Chaoborus
M.Sc. 1997. Water and Environmental Sciences, University of Quebec (INRS-ETE), Canada
Refining a predictive model that uses insect larvae as metal biomonitors in lakes
B.Sc. 1994. Biology, University of Quebec (Rimouski), Canada
The Minerals Integrated Science Team focuses on contaminant exposures in the environment that might originate from mineral resource activities including, transportation, storage, extraction and waste management. Perceived health risks to humans and other organisms will be distinguished from actual risks, if any. If actual risks are identified this Team will inform how to...
Scientists refined an existing speciation model to identify key biogeochemical processes controlling dissolved uranium bioavailability to a freshwater snail. This information is important to advance current understanding and prediction of the ecological risk posed by uranium mining to freshwater ecosystems, including federally managed lands such as in the Grand Canyon area.
Little is known about the underlying mechanisms governing the bioaccumulation of uranium (U) in aquatic insects. We experimentally parameterized conditional rate constants for aqueous U uptake, dietary U uptake, and U elimination for the aquatic baetid mayfly Neocloeon triangulifer. Results showed that this species accumulates U from both the...
Henry, Brianna L.; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Walters, David; Miller, Janet L.; Cain, Daniel J.; Fuller, Christopher C. The growing use of engineered particles (e.g., nanosized and pigment sized particles, 1 to 100 nm and 100 to 300 nm, respectively) in a variety of consumer products increases the likelihood of their release into the environment. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are an important pathways of introduction of engineered particles to the aquatic...
Md. Mahmudun Nabi; Jingjing Wang; Meyer, Madeleine; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Ismail, Niveen; Baalousha, Mohammed The absorption of aqueous copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) by aquatic insects, a group widely used to assess water quality, is unresolved. This study examined interactions among Cu, Zn, and protons that potentially moderate Cu and Zn uptake by the acid-tolerant stonefly Zapada sp. Saturation uptake kinetics was imposed to identify competitive mechanisms...
Cain, Daniel J.; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Fuller, Christopher C. Core-shell silver nanoparticles (NPs) consisting of an inner Ag core and successive layers of Au and Ag (Ag@Au@Ag) were used to measure the simultaneous association of Ag NPs and ionic Ag by the green alga Chlamydomonas (C.) reinhardtii. Dissolution of the inner Ag core was prevented by a gold (Au) layer, while the outer Ag layer was free to...
Dominic Ponton; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Samuel N Luoma; Pourhoseini, Sahar; Merrifield, Ruth; Jamie Lead Metal nanoparticles (Me-NPs) are increasingly used in various products, such as inks and cosmetics, enhancing the likelihood of their release into aquatic environments. An understanding of the mechanisms controlling their bioaccumulation and ecotoxicity in aquatic biota will help support environmental risk...
Tangaa, Stine Rosendal; Winther-Nielsen, Margrethe; Selck, Henriette; Croteau, Marie-Noele The present review covers developments in studies of nanomaterials (NMs) in the environment since our much cited review in 2008. We discuss novel insights into fate and behavior, metrology, transformations, bioavailability, toxicity mechanisms, and environmental impacts, with a focus on terrestrial and aquatic systems. Overall, the findings were...
Lead, Jamie R.; Batley, Graeme E.; Alvarez, Pedro J.J.; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Handy, Richard D.; McLaughlin, Michael J.; Judy, Jonathon D.; Schirmer, Kristin We extend the use of a novel tracing technique to quantify the bioavailability of zinc (Zn) associated with natural particles using snails enriched with a less common Zn stable isotope. Lymnaea stagnalis is a model species that has relatively fast Zn uptake rates from the dissolved phase, enabling their rapid enrichment in 67Zn during the initial...
Croteau, Marie-Noele; Cain, Daniel J.; Fuller, Christopher C. The use and likely incidental release of metal nanoparticles (NPs) is steadily increasing. Despite the increasing amount of published literature on metal NP toxicity in the aquatic environment, very little is known about the biological fate of NPs after sediment exposures. Here, we compare the bioavailability and subcellular distribution of copper...
Thit, Amalie; Ramskov, Tina; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Selck, Henriette To gain insights into the risks associated with uranium (U) mining and processing, we investigated the biogeochemical controls of U bioavailability in the model freshwater speciesLymnaea stagnalis (Gastropoda). Bioavailability of dissolved U(VI) was characterized in controlled laboratory experiments over a range of water hardness, pH, and in...
Croteau, Marie-Noele; Fuller, Christopher C.; Cain, Daniel J.; Campbell, Kate M.; Aiken, George R. Metal-based engineered nanoparticles (NPs) will undergo transformations that will affect their bioavailability, toxicity and ecological risk when released to the environment, including interactions with dissolved organic material. The purpose of this paper is to determine how interactions with two different types of organic material affect the...
Luoma, Samuel N.; Tasha Stoiber; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Isabelle Romer; Ruth Merrifeild; Lead, Jamie Whereas feeding inhibition caused by exposure to contaminants has been extensively documented, the underlying mechanism(s) are less well understood. For this study, the behavior of several key feeding processes, including ingestion rate and assimilation efficiency, that affect the dietary uptake of Cu were evaluated in the benthic grazer ...
Cain, Daniel J.; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Fuller, Christopher C.; Ringwood, Amy H. Copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (NPs) are widely used, and likely released into the aquatic environment. Both aqueous (i.e., dissolved Cu) and particulate Cu can be taken up by organisms. However, how exposure routes influence the bioavailability and subsequent toxicity of Cu remains largely unknown. Here, we assess the importance of exposure...
Ramskov, Tina; Thit, Amalie; Croteau, Marie-Noele; Selck, Henriette