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Bethany K Kunz

The health of soils along roadways is critical for maximizing habitat quality and minimizing negative ecological effects of roads. Adjacent to unpaved roads, soil chemistry may be altered by the deposition of dust, as well as by road treatment with dust suppressants or soil stabilizer products. If present in roadside soils, these product residues may be available to plants, terrestrial invertebrates, or small mammals. Unfortunately, very few studies have attempted to track the transport of dust suppressants after application. As part of a larger ongoing study on the environmental effects of dust suppressant products on roadside plants and animals, we sampled roadside soils at Loess Bluff National Wildlife Refuge...
Dust suppressants and soil stabilizer products are applied to unpaved roads worldwide to reduce dust production and stabilize road surfaces. Although these products may enter roadside surface water through runoff or leaching, little information is available on environmental fate or aquatic toxicity. The data reported here include the acute toxicity of 27 dust suppressant/soil stabilizer products to juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and the acute toxicity of selected products to fatmucket mussels (Lampsilis siliquoidea), virile crayfish (Faxonius virilis), pond snails (Lymnaea stagnalis), and larval gray treefrogs (Dryophytes versicolor). Selected products were also tested after exposure to simulated weathering...
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Biological endpoints for three focal test species [Daphnia magna (mortality), Psuedacris maculata (mortality, growth, and development), and Lemna gibba (growth)] in response to exposure to reconstituted or field-collected water under laboratory conditions. Field-collected waters were collected from wetlands within the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the United States. Reconstituted water was mixed to mimic some chemistry of surface water from brine contaminated PPR wetlands. Also included are water quality and chemical concentration data from all assays.
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Description of Work Determine the relative sensitivity of two species of amphibians (i.e. Wood Frogs Rana sylvatica, Cricket Frogs Acris crepitans blanchardi, American Toad Bufo americana) to exposure to acute and chronic levels of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia. This data will be used to evaluate the current ammonia criteria and for possible inclusion in the development of criteria for nitrite and nitrate.
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Description of Work The work completed for this template will provide the following information: 1) Generate acute and chronic toxicity data for freshwater mussels and snails to enhance the protection of listed/endangered species in the GL basin; 2) Refine methods and conduct acute and chronic toxicity tests on amphibians; 3) Develop and test methods for conducting chronic toxicity tests for mayflies.
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