Dr.Wang Ning, research fish biologist from Columbia Environmental Research Center, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) environmental science research facility, paid a visit to Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB) on May 28.

On May 28, Dr. Wang Ning, research fish biologist from Columbia Environmental Research Center, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) environmental science research facility, paid a visit to Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHB). During his visit, Dr. Wang made a presentation entitled “Generation and Use of Freshwater Mussel Toxicity Data for Water Quality Management”.

Dr. Wang first introduced the research carried out in the fields of environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry and large-scale species investigation at Columbia Environmental Research Center. He then systematically introduced North American freshwater mussel species which are now considered endangered and threatened due to habitat change and environmental contamination. Exposed in some typical chemicals such as copper ions, ammonia etc, researchers performed acute and chronic toxic experiments on glochidia and juvenile mussels of different species of freshwater mussels, trying to reveal the pollution status of environment, assess health risks and provide scientific support for the formulation of environmental protection policy. Dr. Wang said that US Environmental Protection Agency, with reference to the toxicity data of mussels, is currently amending the standard for water quality of ammonia.  

IHB researchers and students later interacted with Dr. Wang on issues such as how to handle the differences between experimental models and research conditions and how to provide support for policy formulation.