The Impact of Tires on Freshwater Fish

For a while, researchers have been pondering why stormwater runoff caused the deaths of swathes of coho salmon across the western coast of the United States.

Recently, they were able to make the link to 6PPD-quinone, a chemical that comes into existence as the surface of a vehicle’s tire breaks down.

Now, researchers from the Nielsen Lab at the University of Texas are making the most of IISD-ELA’s whole-ecosystem approach to freshwater research by adding different levels of 6PPD-quinone to mesocosms in Lake 302, and then monitoring many aspects of the water column—from the water chemistry to the fish and insect populations—to investigate the impact that 6PPD-quinone has on freshwater bodies at a way broader scale than we already understand.