WP 5: Fish ecotoxicology
Targets
Lead Contractor
Lead Partners
Targets
Previous work has indicated that fish in remote mountain
lakes in Europe are exposed to high concentrations of trace metals
and persistent organic pollutants and that the concentration of
some organic congeners is enhanced at high elevation as a result
of a cold-trapping effect. Preliminary evidence of a toxicological
response by fish, most probably to PAH, constitutes one of the few
cases in which a direct correspondence between exposure to one
environmental marker and enzymatic dysfunction has been
observed. In this workpackage we will evaluate how trace
pollutants accumulate in the food chain and assess the
physiological response of fish to individual and combined
stresses.
All samples will be analysed for trace metals and organic
pollutants, and N and C isotope measurements will be made to trace
food-web linkages. There will be three studies:
-
characterising the west-east gradient in contamination from
Greenland to Bulgaria
-
evaluating the relative effects of differences in food,
species composition, morphotype, and elevation on pollution load at
7 Experimental sites
-
assessing physiological responses to pollutant exposure
using food chain data from a single site. In particular we will
investigate the reasons for histological changes in fish liver and
the presence of PAH metabolites in bile
Lead Contractor
-
NIVA - Norwegian Water
Research Institute, Oslo, Norway
Lead Partners
-
CSIC - Department of Environmental
Chemistry, Institute of Chemical and Environmental Research,
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Barcelona
(CSIC), Spain
-
UIBK-IZL - University of
Innsbruck, Institute of Zoology & Limnology, Austria
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