Aquatic Organisms for Environmental Monitoring

A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2017) | Viewed by 15291

Special Issue Editor

Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1066, Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway
Interests: aquatic ecotoxicology; in vitro toxicology; sediment ecology and ecotoxicology; genotoxicity; effect-based monitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is a call for papers relating to the use of biological effects to monitor the status of marine, brackish and freshwater ecosystems. There already exists a large literature on how different external stressors affect aquatic organisms and the main focus of this Special Issue is on the organisms themselves and the properties they have that make them particularly relevant in a monitoring context. For the purposes of this Special Issue, “organism” also includes populations and combination or aggregations of species, i.e., communities.

One major challenges in understanding how and whether anthropogenic activities impact on aquatic organisms is to separate natural variation from the consequences of such activities. Natural processes may also modulate the effect of environmental changes caused by humans. It is therefore particularly important to identify and describe biological systems in which it is possible to clearly separate the two and, even better, able to quantitatively describe the interaction. Similarly, it is important to be able to quantify the relative contribution of different stressors, e.g., eutrophication and contaminants, acidification and eutrophication or different contaminants.

It is easier to assess environmental change over time with organisms or assemblages that are more or less sessile, i.e., benthic, and there is a need for approaches that address changes in pelagic habitats. As indicated above, this Special Issue invites papers on taxonomic levels from bacteria to whales and from single species to communities.

Special interests: Mechanisms of toxicity, interactions, effect monitoring, integrated assessment

Prof. Dr. Ketil Hylland
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fishes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • biological effect
  • environmental
  • eutrophication
  • contaminant
  • acidification
  • eutrophication
  • aquatic
  • interaction
  • monitoring
  • integrated
  • assessment

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2449 KiB  
Article
Sand Goby—An Ecologically Relevant Species for Behavioural Ecotoxicology
by Davide Asnicar, Giedrė Ašmonaitė, Lina Birgersson, Charlotta Kvarnemo, Ola Svensson and Joachim Sturve
Fishes 2018, 3(1), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes3010013 - 20 Feb 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 7805
Abstract
Locomotion-based behavioural endpoints have been suggested as suitable sublethal endpoints for human and environmental hazard assessment, as well as for biomonitoring applications. Larval stages of the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) possess a number of attractive qualities for experimental testing that make [...] Read more.
Locomotion-based behavioural endpoints have been suggested as suitable sublethal endpoints for human and environmental hazard assessment, as well as for biomonitoring applications. Larval stages of the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) possess a number of attractive qualities for experimental testing that make it a promising species in behavioural ecotoxicology. Here, we present a study aimed at developing a toolkit for using the sand goby as novel species for ecotoxicological studies and using locomotion as an alternative endpoint in toxicity testing. Exposure to three contaminants (copper (Cu), di-butyl phthalate (DBP) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was tested in the early life stages of the sand goby and the locomotion patterns of the larvae were quantified using an automatic tracking system. In a photo-motor test, sand goby larvae displayed substantially higher activity in light than in dark cycles. Furthermore, all tested compounds exerted behavioural alterations, such as hypo- and hyperactivity. Our experimental results show that sand goby larvae produce robust and quantifiable locomotive responses, which could be used within an ecotoxicological context for assessing the behavioural toxicity of environmental pollutants, with particular relevance in the Nordic region. This study thus suggests that sand goby larvae have potential as an environmentally relevant species for behavioural ecotoxicology, and as such offer an alternative to standard model species. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Organisms for Environmental Monitoring)
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12 pages, 1783 KiB  
Article
Effects of Harmful Algal Blooms on Fish: Insights from Prymnesium parvum
by Morten Bo Søndergaard Svendsen, Nikolaj Reducha Andersen, Per Juel Hansen and John Fleng Steffensen
Fishes 2018, 3(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes3010011 - 14 Feb 2018
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 6927
Abstract
Blooms of the planktonic alga Prymnesium parvum pose a global threat, causing fish kills worldwide. Early studies on the exposure of fish to P. parvum indicate that toxic effects are related to gill damage. The more strictly defined concept of adverse outcome pathways [...] Read more.
Blooms of the planktonic alga Prymnesium parvum pose a global threat, causing fish kills worldwide. Early studies on the exposure of fish to P. parvum indicate that toxic effects are related to gill damage. The more strictly defined concept of adverse outcome pathways has been suggested as a replacement for the mode of action in toxicology studies. In this study, rainbow trout (Onchorhyncus mykiss) were exposed to P. parvum. During exposure, oxygen consumption was determined by respirometry, and ventilation and coughing rate were determined via video surveillance. Per breath oxygen consumption was calculated to assess the ventilation effort to obtain a unit of oxygen. A second experiment monitored fish behavior to assess recovery. The results indicated that oxygen consumption initially increased, but on average fell below the standard oxygen consumption at 70% relative exposure. Being a function of ventilation frequency and oxygen consumption, the per breath oxygen consumption decreased throughout exposure. Behavioral results determined that short-term P. parvum exposure subsequently caused the exposed fish to seek flow refuge immediately and to a greater extent than unexposed fish. The adverse outcome pathway of P. parvum on rainbow trout is that P. parvum acts as a gill irritant resulting in non-recoverable respiratory failure. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquatic Organisms for Environmental Monitoring)
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