Postdoctoral Fellowship: PRFB: The impacts of organismal ecology on the distribution of lead pollution in the environment

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2024, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The Fellow will study ecosystems that have been contaminated by lead, a type of metal that is highly toxic and yet has been used by humans for centuries.

Lead pollution in the environment is widespread and long-lasting, but it is currently difficult to predict where lead will end up after it is released into the environment. This award initiates a new phase of lead research, a phase that focuses on how natural ecological processes can cause lead pollution to concentrate in certain organisms and habitats.

Lead is a well-documented social justice issue because low-income and marginalized communities have endured disproportionately high levels of lead pollution, and so this research will be completed as part of larger program to increase scientific outreach, promote diversity in STEM, and direct the benefits of ecological science towards those who have been systematically harmed by environmental pollution.

The project will reveal how organismal ecology affects the long-term distribution of lead pollution in various ecosystems. Lead pollution results from human activities, but once released into the environment, it can accumulate within organisms. Yet, because of sampling and analytical constraints, very little is known about how lead is integrated into food webs and ecological communities.

The Fellow will generate an extensive dataset of lead bioaccumulation using natural history museum bird specimens from the Great Lakes region and next-generation elemental analysis. It is hypothesized that historical lead pollution in the Great Lakes can be elucidated from regional bird specimens because birds occupy diverse ecological niches, have been actively collected by since the 1800s, and permanently accumulate lead in their bones upon exposure, which can now be measured rapidly using portable X-ray fluorescence analyzers.

It is expected that bone lead levels will vary among bird species that have different diets and habitat preferences and throughout history as lead pollution rates have changed. Lead contamination is a major environmental justice issue, so this project will actively create opportunities for community members to learn more and participate in the research process.

The fellow will develop K-12 outreach program, mentor students from minoritized groups, work with a SACNAS chapter, and explicitly incorporate environmental justice components into the research findings.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.