Toxicity of photoactivated PAHs to early lifestages of endangered fish and fathead minnows
- National Biological Service, Columbia, MO (United States). Midwest Science Center
The San Juan River Basin, located in the Four Corners area of the southwestern US, contains some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the US. The basin is also critical habitat for several native fishes, including the endangered Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker. Proposed expansion of oil and gas development in the San Juan basin has sparked concerns that potential increases in PAH loading may jeopardize these and other native fishes. Previous acute exposures of juvenile fish to fluoranthene, anthracene, pyrene, and chrysene showed that LC{sub 50} values for the two endangered species were within a factor of 2 of those for fathead minnows, However, subsequent experiments showed that fathead minnow fry were far more sensitive than juvenile fish. In response to this finding, additional exposures to fluoranthene and UV were conducted using early life stages of the endangered fish and fathead minnows. These experiments confirmed that fry were several-fold more sensitive to photoactivated PAH toxicity than were juvenile fish; in addition, the authors found that fry responded much more quickly to PAH/UV exposure. These findings, coupled with other environmental factors, suggest that early life stages of fish may be particularly susceptible to photoactivated PAH toxicity in the field.
- OSTI ID:
- 367435
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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