Every Summer Semester, Ecotox Master students do a 2-month internship or AMEO (Applied Module at an External Organization). Today, Emily shares her AMEO experience at the WasserCluster Lunz (WCL) and the Universität für Weiterbildung Krems (UWK) in Austria.

Hello, my name is Emily Pomroy and as a part of my MSc. program in ecotoxicology at RPTU, I completed a 12 week internship in Austria at WasserCluster Lunz (WCL) and the Universität für Weiterbildung Krems (UWK). WCL is freshwater research station, partnered with 3 universities in Lower Austria on the beautiful Lunzer See. UWK is one of the partner universities for this centre.

My internship was based within the LIPTOX research group led by Prof. Dr. Habil. Martin Kainz.  The LIPTOX group focuses on particularly lipids and fatty acids, and how aquatic organisms acquire these essential dietary nutrients in different environments, under various stressors such as pesticides and temperature. I decided to join this research group for my internship to dive deeper into the ecological aspect of ecotoxicology and learn more about how contaminants cascade through the food web, affecting the quality of trophic transfer

My time at WasserCluster Lunz

During the first weeks of my internship, I had the opportunity to learn how to extract fatty acids from various tissue samples of fish and participate in the monthly monitoring sampling in Lake Lunz.

Fig 1. Sampling of Lunzer See

Before heading to Krems, I participated in an overnight field sampling trip to the Waldviertel where we sampled six carp ponds for algae, zooplankton, and macroinvertebrates.

Fig 2. Pond sampling in Waldviertel. Pictured: Dr. Petri Kesti, Ines Fuchs, and myself.

My time at the Universität für Weiterbildung Krems

In the second half of my internship I moved to UWK, within the same research group. I worked with Dr. Fan Qin, in his FWF-ESPRIT project, HerbiFat. The first week at UWK, I headed to the carp ponds in Waldviertel again to sample the Jagerteich, one of the oldest carp ponds in the region.

Fig 3. Jagerteich in Waldviertel

After collecting the pond water, I conducted a 10-day experiment on the pond algal community, exposing it to three concentrations of S-metolachlor. For this experiment we analyzed several parameters, such as the photosynthetic activity, fatty acid composition, lipid composition, total lipids by gravimetry, pigment, changes in community composition, and cell counts. I was fortunate to be in Krems at the same time as a visiting professor, Dr. Philippe Juneau, an aquatic ecotoxicologist at the Université du Québec à Montréal, who was a great support for me during this experiment. 

Fig 4. The algal cultures from the experiment, with true replicates.

Reflection of my Experience

Throughout my internship I was glad to have the support of many researchers who were passionate about their research and eager to help me learn methodologies, how to conduct an experiment, and how to approach evaluating various types of data, and the interconnectedness of it all. Within four weeks at UWK, I was able to collect the samples from the field, conduct an experiment with 68 samples over 10 days, complete all the lab work during or following the experiment and both begin to look and evaluate the results.  I learned how many ways there is to approach a question of: “How does this particular contaminant affect an algae community?” , but also how important it is to address these different aspects that are affected to have a deeper understanding. From this experience, I have a strong appreciation for the complexity and environmental relevance of studies beyond a monoculture.

Fig 5. Part of the LIPTOX team, after sampling in the carp ponds.

I would like to thank the LIPTOX research team in UWK and Lunz for the great opportunity to learn a lot in a short period of time. Thank you in addition to the Erasmus+ Traineeship program which provided me with a scholarship to make this opportunity possible!