Prof. Yaohui Bai
Key Laboratory of Environmental Aquatic Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Regional Environment and Sustainability, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of SciencesSpeech Title: EcoImprove: Revealing aquatic ecological effects of micropollutant discharge from municipal wastewater treatment plants
Abstract: Micropollutants (MPs) discharged from municipal wastewater treatment plants are of great environmental concern due to their toxicities to aquatic organisms. Given the knowledge gaps on how MPs affect receiving aquatic ecosystems, we initiated the EcoImprove project to unravel the causal relationship between MP discharge and variation in biocommunity (especially microbial community) composition and function in receiving aquatic ecosystems. After integrating laboratory studies, field investigations, and flume simulation experiments from 2014 to 2021, we investigated how different MPs affect the growth and metabolic function of microbial species, developed several microbial indicators to evaluate the effects of MP discharge on receiving rivers, and evaluated the ecological benefits of municipal wastewater treatment plant upgrade on receiving aquatic ecosystems. Here, we summarize the main outcomes of the EcoImprove project and propose future research plans to deepen our understanding of the ecological impacts of anthropogenic activity.
Biography: Prof. Yaohui Bai obtained his B.Sc. degree from the Department of Biology, Sichuan University in 1998. He then completed his Master's degree at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University in 2005, and obtained his Ph.D. degree at the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University in 2009. Between 2008 and 2009, he was an exchange Ph.D. student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, USA. In 2011, he joined RCEES as an Assistant Professor (Associate Professor from 2013 to 2020). At RCEES, he continued his research into controlling water pollution with an emphasis on microbiological techniques. From 2013 to 2014, he worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) as a research scientist. Currently, he is a professor (since 2020) at RCEES and his research mainly focuses on (i) new biological water treatment techniques, and (ii) microecology process & manipulation. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers.