Ben Giudice
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Degree Objective: MS, PhD
Started in 2005
BSE, Civil Concentration,
MS, Environmental Engineering,
Family: Wife Mary
Interests: The Environment, Fly Fishing, Woodworking, Football, the Outdoors
Research Projects
Roadside
Herbicide Use in
The California
Department
of Transportation (Caltrans) is one of the largest users of pesticides
in the
state. Caltrans applies herbicides
along highway roadsides to improve driver visibility, reduce the risk
of fire,
and prevent damage to the road surface.
Beginning in the early 1990’s, in response to public outcry
against this practice, Caltrans set goals to reduce herbicide use by
50% of
1992 levels by 2000 and 80% by 2012.
As part of this effort, a study was conducted in which
herbicides were
analyzed in highway runoff and their transport characterized by
sorption
effects. Following this, a model was
developed that could predict the concentration in the runoff based on a
number
of physical-chemical parameters of an application at a site.
My
research uses this model to gain insight into the relative risks of
application
practices and the effectiveness of mitigation efforts and reducing
these
risks. I first applied this model
to the entire state of
The reproductive and
population-level impact of
environmental endocrine disruption on the invasive gastropod
Potamopyrgus
antipodarum
Over the last fifteen years, endocrine disrupting
chemicals
(EDCs) have become a topic of intense research. EDCs
enter natural waters such as rivers
and lakes from many sources, including wastewater treatment plant
(WWTP)
discharges. Even when present at
very low levels, EDCs affect plants and animals in significant but
unpredictable ways. One such animal
is the invasive Potamopyrgus Antipodarum (New Zealand Mudsnail),
which has infested many waters of the
In this study, the effects on this snail of these chemicals in mixtures, such as would be seen in the environment, will be studied in the laboratory. Furthermore, long term population studies will be conducted to understand how effects manifest themselves to future generations. Next, caged populations will be placed in parts of a river that contain WWTP discharge and parts that don't, and the effects of the discharge and the levels of EDCs in the water will be related to the reproductive effects seen. From these experiments, it is hoped that population level effects of EDCs will be able to be predicted for environmental exposure scenarios. The goal is that by better understanding the considerable effects of these chemicals, new regulations will be developed to protect our waters. Furthermore, the project will add insight to potential effects of multiple environmental threats acting in concert, namely chemical contaminants and invasive species.
New Zealand Mudsnails on a stream cobble. Densities in the environment can reach approximately 1 million snails per square meter.
(photo credit: D.L. Gustafson)