Multi-biochemical responses of benthic macroinvertebrate species as a complementary tool to diagnose the cause of community impairment in polluted rivers

Damásio, Joana; Fernández-Sanjuan, María; Sánchez-Ávila, Juan; Lacorte, Sı́lvia; Fornells, Narcís Prat; Rieradevall, María; Soares, Amadeu M.V.M.; Barata, Carlos

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2011.04.006

Cited by 58 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…In this basin, increased salinity has been reported to affect the composition of the fauna due to its toxicity (Damásio et al, 2008). For example, the stress caused by salt pollution disrupted the metabolic activity of one of the most abundant and tolerant species in the Llobregat River: the Trichoptera Hydropsyche exocellata (Damásio et al, 2011). However, current information on the impact of salt mines on rivers and streams within the area is limited to the main course of Llobregat River; detailed information on the impact of salt pollution on the streams that surround the mines is lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of potash mining in streams: the Llobregat basin (northeast Spain) as a case study

2016

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Potash mining is significantly increasing the salt concentration of rivers and streams due to lixiviates coming from the mine tailings. In the present study, we have focused on the middle Llobregat basin (northeast Spain), where an important potash mining activity exists from the beginning of the XX century. Up to 50 million tonnes of saline waste have been disposed in the area, mainly composed of sodium chloride. We assessed the ecological status of streams adjacent to the mines by studying different physicochemical and hydromorphological variables, as well as aquatic macroinvertebrates. We found extraordinary high values of salinity in the studied streams, reaching conductivities up to 132.4 mS/cm. Salt-polluted streams were characterized by a deterioration of the riparian vegetation and the fluvial habitat. Both macroinvertebrate richness and abundance decreased with increasing salinity. In the most polluted stream only two families of macroinvertebrates were found: Ephydridae and Ceratopogonidae. According to the biotic indices IBMWP and IMMi-T, none of the sites met the requirements of the Water Framework Directive (WFD; i.e., good ecological status). Overall, we can conclude that potash-mining activities have the potential to cause severe ecological damage to their surrounding streams. This is mainly related to an inadequate management of the mine tailings, leading to highly saline runoff and percolates entering surface waters. Thus, we urge water managers and policy makers to take action to prevent, detect and remediate salt pollution of rivers and streams in potash mining areas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of potash mining in streams: the Llobregat basin (northeast Spain) as a case study

2016

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“…Waste and accidental discharges from industrial and urban activities as well as from mining activities (salt brines) are the main impacts [3,18,19]. High nutrient loads, salt concentrations and conductivity, and the presence of some priority and hazardous chemical substances co-occur in the lower Llobregat River [17,18] resulting in a moderate and poor ecological and chemical status [3,20,23,24].…”

Section: Human Pressure and Water Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of a large set of biomarkers that involve several metabolic and detoxication paths may also be useful to indentify particular pollutants that are affecting river biota. Biomarkers can be measured in field collected organisms and then may inform us about the physiological state of organisms inhabiting those sites [19,23]. If biomarkers are combined with the analysis of pollutants, it is possible to correlate specific effects with putative stressors [19,21].…”

Section: New Tools For Ecosystem Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biomarkers can be measured in field collected organisms and then may inform us about the physiological state of organisms inhabiting those sites [19,23]. If biomarkers are combined with the analysis of pollutants, it is possible to correlate specific effects with putative stressors [19,21]. Nevertheless, one of the greatest advantages of the above-mentioned tools is its combination.…”

Section: New Tools For Ecosystem Risk Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Macroinvertebrates, diatoms, macrophytes, and fish fauna have been more recently used to assess the biological quality in the Llobregat River and in the rest of Catalan water watersheds [13][14][15][16]. Also, priority and emergent pollutants have been monitored [17,18], and new tools for ecosystem risk assessment have been implemented [11,19]. Recent studies have analyzed the effect of certain emerging contaminants on biological communities in the Llobregat River [20,21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Human Pressure and Its Effects on Water Quality and Biota in the Llobregat River

Munné

Solà

Tirapu

et al. 2012

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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Linking feeding inhibition with reproductive impairment in Gammarus confirms the ecological relevance of feeding assays in environmental monitoring

Coulaud

Geffard

Vigneron

et al. 2015

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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The in situ feeding bioassay in Gammarus fossarum is recognized as a reliable tool for monitoring the toxicity of freshwater contamination. However, whether recorded feeding inhibitions can potentially provoke population-level adverse outcomes remains an open question. In the present study, the authors present an experimental study in G. fossarum, which contributes to the quantitative description of the links between feeding inhibitions and impacts on female reproductive performance. The authors studied the impacts of food deprivation on reproductive endpoints (i.e., fecundity, fertility, molt cycle) during 2 successive molting cycles. Among the main results, the authors found that food deprivation triggered a slowdown of the molting process and a reduction in fertility but no alteration to embryonic development. These reproductive impairments appeared for feeding inhibition values usually recorded in monitoring programs of environmental pollution. Using a population model translating Gammarus life-history, the authors predicted that the observed reproductive alterations predict a strong degradation of population dynamics. The present study underlines the importance of feeding inhibition in population-level risk assessment and discusses how establishing upscaling schemes based on quantitative mechanistic links between impacts at different levels of biological organization can be applied in environmental monitoring to propose an ecotoxicological assessment of water quality, which would be sensitive, specific, and ecologically relevant.

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Multi-biochemical responses of benthic macroinvertebrate species as a complementary tool to diagnose the cause of community impairment in polluted rivers

Cited by 58 publications

References 52 publications

Impact of potash mining in streams: the Llobregat basin (northeast Spain) as a case study

Impact of potash mining in streams: the Llobregat basin (northeast Spain) as a case study

Human Pressure and Its Effects on Water Quality and Biota in the Llobregat River

Linking feeding inhibition with reproductive impairment in Gammarus confirms the ecological relevance of feeding assays in environmental monitoring

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