Effects of Tire Wear Particle Leachate on Juvenile Fathead Minnow Behavior

This is the topic of Grace Mattson's honors thesis. She looked at how the mixture of synthetic chemicals and heavy metals that leach out of tire wear particles into water impact larval fathead minnows' (Pimephales promelas) behavior and mortality.

What Have We Learned?

Though this is still an ongoing project, we have observed a few trends emerging from the data:

Through performing acute toxicity tests (24-hour exposure) on various ages of fathead minnow larvae, it has been observed that larvae a month and older and much less sensitive to the tire wear particle leachate than those younger than a month.
The higher the concentration of tire wear particle leachate in the treatment, the higher the mortality rate, the lower the feeding rate, and the more time spent in a high mobility state (consistent with neurological damage.)

Overall, we are seeing a positive relationship emerging between the exposure to tire wear particle leachate and changes in swimming behavior, feeding behavior, and mortality rate in fathead minnow larvae younger than a month old.