Freshwater Quality Assessment: Development and Measurements of Biomarkers in Invertebrates

A special issue of Environments (ISSN 2076-3298).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2020) | Viewed by 3784

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Ecotoxicology (LEAE) - Freshwater and OceaniC Sciences Unit of ReSearch (FOCUS), Chemistry Institute, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Interests: ecotoxicology; aquatic invertebrates; biomarkers; endocrine disruption; confounding factors; crustaceans; amphipods; rotifers

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened habitats on Earth, due to anthropogenic impacts resulting in a loss of biodiversity. Although monitoring of chemical and ecological status is a fundamental tool for assessing the quality of the environment, they provide information on the presence of pollutants that is not sufficient to analyze the pollution impacts on organisms. Consequently, biomarker use is of interest in the evaluation of the quality of freshwater environments.

Many biomarkers are already developed, well-established, and used on aquatic vertebrates to assess the freshwater environment’s quality. Therefore, this Special Issue is seeking original, unpublished papers on the development and use of biomarkers on invertebrates. Additionally, specific emphasis will be on: (i) the influence of confounding factors (biotic and abiotic), (ii) the knowledge of natural variations of the considered biomarkers, and (iii) their specific response for certain pollutants families and their time- and dose-dependent responses, which still make it difficult to use biomarkers in the field.

Dr. Eric Gismondi
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • aquatic invertebrates
  • biomarkers of exposure and effects
  • abiotic and/or biotic factors' influence
  • environmental risk assessment
  • laboratory and/or field studies
  • time- and dose-dependent response
  • biomarkers specific to certain families of pollutants

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1352 KiB  
Article
Toxicological Effects of Inorganic Nanoparticle Mixtures in Freshwater Mussels
by Joelle Auclair, Patrice Turcotte, Christian Gagnon, Caroline Peyrot, Kevin J. Wilkinson and François Gagné
Environments 2020, 7(12), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/environments7120109 - 12 Dec 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3332
Abstract
The toxicological effects of nanoparticles mixtures in aquatic organisms are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the tissue metal loadings and sublethal effects of silver (nAg), cerium oxide (nCeO), copper oxide (nCuO) and zinc oxide (nZnO) nanoparticles individually at [...] Read more.
The toxicological effects of nanoparticles mixtures in aquatic organisms are poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to examine the tissue metal loadings and sublethal effects of silver (nAg), cerium oxide (nCeO), copper oxide (nCuO) and zinc oxide (nZnO) nanoparticles individually at 50 µg/L and in two mixtures to freshwater mussels Dreissena bugensis. The mixtures consisted of 12.5 µg/L of each nanoparticle (Mix50) and 50 µg/L of each nanoparticles (Mix200). After a 96-h exposure period, mussels were analyzed for morphological changes, air time survival, bioaccumulation, inflammation (cyclooxygenase or COX activity), lipid peroxidation (LPO), DNA strand breaks, labile Zn, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and protein–ubiquitin levels. The data revealed that mussels accumulated the nanoparticles with nCeO and nAg were the least and most bioavailable, respectively. Increased tissue metal loadings were observed for nCeO and nCuO in mixtures, while no mixture effects were observed for nAg and nZnO. The weight loss during air emersion was lower in mussels exposed to nCuO alone but not by the mixture. On the one hand, labile Zn levels was increased with nZnO but returned to control values with the Mix50 and Mix200, suggesting antagonism. On the other hand, DNA strand breaks were reduced for both mixtures compared to controls or to the nanoparticles individually, suggesting potentiation of effects. The same was found for protein–ubiquitin levels, which were decreased by nCeO and nCuO alone but not when in mixtures, which increased their levels. In conclusion, the data revealed that the behavior and effects of nanoparticles were influenced by other nanoparticles where antagonist and potentiation interactions were identified. Full article
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