Webinar title: Field Evidence of Chemical-Induced Lethal Effects and Their Causative Agents
Speaker: Chunsheng Liu
Webinar time: Sep 3rd, 2026 (Thursday) 15:30
Venue: Room 231, New Environmental Building
Inviter: Nan Sheng, Jiayin Dai
Abstract:
Chemical management poses a critical challenge to global ecosystem health. As a major producer and consumer of chemicals, China faces an urgent need to mitigate environmental risks from emerging contaminants. Toxicity data for chemical pollutants are primarily derived from laboratory exposure tests on a limited set of model organisms, which serve as the basis for environmental quality standards. However, wildlife in natural environments is exposed to pollutants at long‑term, low‑dose levels, which differ markedly from laboratory conditions in terms of concentration, duration, and species diversity. Consequently, detecting the ecological effects of emerging contaminants on wild populations at environmentally relevant concentrations remains a major challenge in pollution ecochemistry. Professor Chunsheng Liu conducted multi‑year field surveys in the Liangzi Lake group in Hubei Province, observing significant population declines in the snail Bellamya aeruginosa and the fish Culter dabryi. These declines were characterized by the absence of individuals at specific body‑length classes, leading to gaps in population age structure. Further investigation identified the insecticide chlorpyrifos as the primary causative agent, with chronic lethal effects at low concentrations as the underlying toxic mechanism. These findings provide a valuable field‑based research paradigm for wildlife ecotoxicology and offer critical field toxicity data to support the regulation of chlorpyrifos.
About the speaker:
Chunsheng Liu is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). He is a high‑level young talent and holds the university’s “Distinguished Scholar” (Class A) title. In 2014, he received the “Chutian Scholar” award of Hubei Province. His research centers on aquatic ecotoxicology, integrating environmental chemistry, molecular toxicology, and ecology to investigate the toxic effects of typical environmental pollutants on wildlife at both individual and population levels, as well as to identify sources and trace causative toxicants in regional environments. He has supervised 5 postdoctoral fellows, 10 doctoral students, and 18 master’s students. He has published over 70 peer‑reviewed papers as first or corresponding author in journals such as Science and ES&T, and has led the development of one national standard. He currently serves as Associate Editor for Environmental Research.