The importance of sediments in ecological quality assessment of stream headwaters: embryotoxicity along the Nidda River and its tributaries in Central Hesse, Germany

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the crucial importance of sediments in aquatic systems is well-known, sediments are often neglected as a factor in the evaluation of water quality assessment. To support and extend previous work in that field, this study was conducted to assess the impact of surface water and sediment on fish embryos in the case of a highly anthropogenically influenced river catchment in Central Hesse, Germany.ResultsThe results of 96 h post fertilisation fish embryo toxicity test with Danio rerio (according to OECD Guideline 236) revealed that river samples comprising both water and sediment exert pivotal effects in embryos, whereas surface water alone did not. The most prominent reactions were developmental delays and, to some extent, malformations of embryos. Developmental delays occurred at rates up to 100% in single runs. Malformation rates ranged mainly below 10% and never exceeded 25%.ConclusionA clear relationship between anthropogenic point sources and detected effects could not be established. However, the study illustrates the critical condition of the entire river system with respect to embryotoxic potentials present even at the most upstream test sites. In addition, the study stresses the necessity to take into account sediments for the evaluation of ecosystem health in industrialised areas.

Shedding light on toxicity of SARS-CoV-2 peptides in aquatic biota: A study involving neotropical mosquito larvae (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…Although SARS-CoV-2 disease has been extensively studied in recent months, the virus effects, or parts of it, in animals at early stages of exclusively aquatic development have not been well explored. Some researchers described that the early stages of development of different organisms are extremely sensitive to water contaminants and pollutants ( Pašková & Hilscherová, 2011 ; Schweizer et al, 2018 , Malafaia et al, 2020a , Malafaia et al, 2020b , Malafaia et al, 2020c ). Smaller larvae of aquatic insects have a higher uptake of contaminants than larger larvae because of a relatively higher body surface area to body mass ratio ( Buchwalter et al, 2002 , 2004 ; Wiberg-Larsen et al, 2016 ).…”

Contamination and Toxicity of Surface Waters Along Rural and Urban Regions of the Capibaribe River in Tropical Northeastern Brazil

“…Fish early‐life stage toxicity tests including zebrafish acute and sublethal developmental endpoints used in the present study were more sensitive than Daphnia reproduction and algae growth inhibition tests in 9.5% of tests involving 223 compounds (Teixidó et al, 2020). Zebrafish embryo‐larval bioassays focused on lethal and sublethal endpoints are increasingly being used worldwide as efficient and sensitive tools for assessing the ichthyotoxicity of surface waters and sediments in North America (VanLandeghem et al, 2012), Central America (Wilson et al, 2021), Europe (Schweizer et al, 2018), and Asia (Chen et al, 2015).…”

Meso- and microplastic distribution and spatial connections to heavy metal contaminations in highly cultivated and urbanised floodplain soilscapes – a case study from the Nidda River (Germany)

“…The floodplains of the Nidda River first appear after leaving the Vogelsberg (headwaters) and progressively expand with the river course; they consist mainly of Fluvisols (fine-grained Holocene flood loam and colluvial deposits) and partly of Gleysols and Stagnosols (Table A 1 The Nidda River itself, as a spatial connection through the basin landscape, can be classified as a medium-sized stream system with six major tributaries (Figure 1). Located in the cultural landscape, the stream is influenced by intense industrial and agricultural activities, including six industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants in its course, and river engineering for flood protection (Brettschneider et al, 2019;Schweizer et al, 2018) (Figure 1). Today's land use along the Nidda River changes from a rather rural environment in the upper reaches (population density: 72 people km², settlement and traffic area: 10.6 %) to a heavily cultivated agricultural heartland in the middle reaches (population density: 282 people km², settlement and traffic area: 16.1 %), to the highly urbanised lower reaches in the Frankfurt metropolitan region (population density: 3077 people km², settlement and traffic area: 58.6 %) (Hessian State Statistical Office, 2021).…”