Downstream gradients in bioindicator responses: Point source contaminant effects on fish health
Conference
·
OSTI ID:460486
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Environmental Sciences Div.
- Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
To investigate potential causal relationships between contaminant exposure and biological responses in fish, a suite of bioindicators ranging from the biochemical to the community-level were measured in fish populations and communities downstream from a bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME) discharge. Downstream gradients in responses were evident in elevated hepatic mixed-function oxygenase activity, several measures of condition and bioenergetic status, growth, the health assessment index, and several fish community-level parameters. A multivariate discriminant analysis procedure, which included many of the individual bioindicators, also demonstrated a gradient in integrated health status of a sentinel fish species in the contaminated river. These downstream response gradients were probably influenced to a greater degree by contaminant discharges than by natural or anthropogenic nutrient sources downstream. Establishing causal relationships between a specific contaminant source and responses in sentinel aquatic organisms becomes relatively more straightforward when downstream gradients in biological responses are observed at multiple levels of biological organization.
- OSTI ID:
- 460486
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961149--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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