St. Lawrence River ecosystem monitoring: Selection of bioindicators and biomarkers of contamination and health
- Canadian Wildlife Service, Ste-Foy, Quebec (Canada)
- Canadian Wildlife Service, Hull, Quebec (Canada)
- Univ. du Quebec, Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
The St. Lawrence River is contaminated by a large quantity of toxic substances from many sources, This contamination comes from the Great Lakes, as well as from industrial, urban and agricultural sources along its shores. The St. Lawrence Action Plan has, among other objectives, the goals of reducing the toxic inputs and the development of a surveillance network of the condition of the river. This network will include the selection of indicator species to follow the contamination of the trophic web to evaluate the success of the cleanup. It will also integrate ecotoxicological and demographic information to measure the effects of these toxic substances on living organisms and to follow the health of the system, in an ecosystemic approach. A number of species have been preselected on the basis of different ecological and physiological criteria. The Great Blue Heron and the Blackcrowned Night Heron, among other species, have been evaluated as indicator species for this network. Eggs and fledglings have been collected for contaminant and biochemical analysis from 1991 through 1994. Demographic data have also been collected. The data are compared between the two species, between St. Lawrence River colonies and to control colonies, as well as with data from the literature. In general, contamination levels are below those found in other regions and no effects on populations have been observed. However, preliminary results suggest that some of the biomarkers tested may be sensitive early indicators of wildlife contamination and health in the St. Lawrence River.
- OSTI ID:
- 212064
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137-; ISBN 1-880611-03-1; TRN: IM9617%%380
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) world conference, Vancouver (Canada), 5-9 Nov 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Second SETAC world congress (16. annual meeting): Abstract book. Global environmental protection: Science, politics, and common sense; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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