HIGHLAND SCIENTIST BELIEVES PROCESS COULD BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL TIME BOMB
Researcher probes impact of sex-change pollutants on shrimps
A Highland researcher is at the forefront of international efforts to gauge the impact of sex-changing pollutants on invertebrates such as shrimps.
Alex Ford, who is based at Thurso in Caithness, is researching the gender-bending process to come up with an early warning system.
His focus has been on shrimps, and he has just returned from studying a bisexual freshwater colony in Virginia.
That visit came shortly after he was in Brazil where he presented his latest findings to peers from throughout the world.
Mr. Ford, 32 an ecotoxicologist, is a member of the cosmopolitan team at North Highland College’s Environmental Research Institute.
The reproductive abnormalities which pollutants can cause on shrimps and other invertebrates is a relatively new field or research, but one which he believes needs to be undertaken to defuse an environmental timebomb.
Since the early 1990s, certain chemicals have been identified which can interfere with the sexuality of alligators, fish and turtles. This causes an imbalance in the natural mix of male and female hormones, which in some cases been linked to dramatic population loss.
Mr Ford said: “Crustaceans such as shrimps, crabs and snails play a phenomenally important part in the natural world. They are towards the bottom of the chain and, if it goes beyond a certain tipping point for the crustaceans, it could have a carastrophic effect on creatures father up the chain.”
He said a type of paint used on the hulls of boats contained a chemical which converted the female hormone oestrogen into the male hormone testosterone, and led to local colonies of sea snails being wiped out.
Mr Ford is shortly to examine the impact of pollution on shrimp colonies in the Baltic Sea. He is also to travel to Portugal and the Arctic. His research is the topic of his talk at the Orkney Science Festival on August 31.
