Tom Topaz
Gitai Yahel Lab
PhD 2021
The role of estuaries in controlling pollution of the Mediterranean Sea: the Alexander as a case study
The role of small estuaries (micro-estuaries) as a physical sink and biogeochemical reactor affecting the fate and behavior of organic pollutants and their impact on the marine environment is not clear. In my work, I aim to understand the processes that control the fate of organic pollutants as they travel along the estuarine environment and into the nearby sea during both base-flows and flood events. My focus is mainly on the transport, degradation, sedimentation and sorption-desorption process of pesticides and pharmaceutical residues. Working both in the field (Alexander stream) and in the lab, I intend to characterize and quantify fluxes and loads of dissolved and particulate organic pollutants into the alexander estuary and out to the Mediterranean Sea, and elucidate the fate and behavior of selected organic pollutants as they are exposed to key geochemical and physical processes that typified small estuaries.
Pollution of coastal streams from agricultural activities: Alexander stream case study