Fishes and Mussels in Ecotoxicological Studies: Indicators for Water Pollution

Dear Colleagues,

Contamination of both, freshwater and marine environment has been a worldwide phenomenon for decades and affects aquatic life. Furthermore, heavy metals and toxic elements, as well as persistent organic pollutants, such as pesticides, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins, etc., are considered to be among the most problematic environmental pollutants, due to their persistence, nonbiodegradability, toxicity, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification. For the purposes of environmental monitoring and risk assessment, bioindicator organisms, such as fishes and mussels, have been used in ecotoxicology. Fishes are essential components of aquatic ecosystems, playing important roles in community food web structures, nutrient recycling, and productivity, as well as having high socioeconomic importance. Bivalve mollusks, especially mussels, are considered good bioindicators of environmental contamination because of their sedentary life mode, broad distribution, high abundance, filtering feeding mode, high tolerance to environmental changes, and their ability to accumulate significant concentrations of different substances in their tissues. Nevertheless, fishes are an important food source for humans, and monitoring toxicant levels is therefore important to ensure food safety; mussels attract attention regarding assessing human health risks associated with water pollution as well. Responses in fishes and mussels to environmental stress are usually measured using multiple biomarkers of different biological functions and from different levels of biological organization. Thus, an integrated biomarker approach which employs a number of biochemical, morphological, genotoxic, and physiological features and biomarkers, which represent the type, degree, and state of alterations, along with chemical analyses of water and sediments, need to be studied thoroughly to understand the extent of the damage, which is an essential aspect of ecotoxicological research.

Dr. Vesela Yancheva
Guest Editor

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• environmental contaminants
• polluted environment
• bioidnicators
• fishes
• mussels
• biomarkers