Kylie Rock, PhD, Clemson University, will explore how pollutants are distributed across estuarine environments, microbial communities, food webs, and coastal shark populations. Dr. Rock will discuss research examining seasonal PFAS dynamics in estuarine microbes, the influence of habitat use and feeding ecology on contaminant bioaccumulation in sharks, species-specific responses to microplastics, and the development of non-lethal physiologically based toxicokinetic models for assessing internal contaminant burdens. Together, these projects connect environmental chemistry, microbial ecology, trophic biology, and toxicology to better understand pollution impacts and improve ecological risk assessment in changing coastal environments.