The Effect of Timing, Magnitude, and Chemical Identity of PPCP Exposure on the Growth and Development of Brassica spp.

Pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCPs) are a class of pollutants increasingly common to aquatic ecosystems and agricultural landscapes. They have been found at a wide range of locations at low concentrations and in chemical mixtures, primarily in wastewater effluents and agricultural biosolids. Current waste management technology does not have the capacity to fully remove PPCPs from waste, resulting in the release of biologically active chemicals and their metabolites into the environment. PPCPs can be taken up from soil or water and stored in the roots and tissues of plants. It has been found that PPCPs have deleterious effects on biofilms, change bacterial composition, and bio accumulate in living tissue to the point of acute toxicity. In this project, I look at the impact on plant growth and development of five common PPCPs (Carbamazepine, Diclofenac, Diphenhydramine, Fluoxetine, and Triclosan) in individual treatments and in mixture. Using the plants grown in these PPCPs, I investigate the degree to which these chemicals influence specialist herbivore feeding behavior. I also compare the effect of chronic and pulse additions of chemicals and the effect of two different concentrations of these chemicals