1. Assessing chronic fish health: An application to a case of an acute exposure to chemically treated crude oil
- Author
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José-Luis Zambonino-Infante, M. Whittington, Annabelle Nicolas-Kopec, Camille Lacroix, S. Le Floch, Paolo Domenici, Guy Claireaux, Patrick Lemaire, Florian Mauduit, Anthony P. Farrell, Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin (LEMAR) (LEMAR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), CNR Institute for Coastal Marine Environment (IAMC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), University of British Columbia (UBC), Centre de documentation de recherche et d'expérimentations sur les pollutions accidentelles des eaux (Cedre), Cedre, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer - Brest (IFREMER Centre de Bretagne), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer - Brest (IFREMER)
- Subjects
030110 physiology ,0301 basic medicine ,Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis ,Growth ,010501 environmental sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Mesocosm ,Darwinian Fitness ,swimming ,Hypoxia ,Behavior, Animal ,Ecology ,Temperature ,Hypoxia (environmental) ,petroleum-hydrocarbons ,Petroleum ,Ecological performance ,dicentrarchus-labrax ,Dicentrarchus ,Physiological integrity ,growth ,european sea bass ,Zoology ,Dispersant ,Aquatic Science ,Biology ,critical swimming speed ,juvenile rainbow-trout ,wildlife health ,03 medical and health sciences ,Animals ,Juvenile ,Marine ecosystem ,Ecosystem ,sole solea-solea ,14. Life underwater ,Sea bass ,Swimming ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,ACL ,Oil spill ,temperature ,water-soluble fraction ,biology.organism_classification ,Fish ,herring clupea-pallasi ,13. Climate action ,Bass ,[SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology ,Water Pollutants, Chemical ,Biomarkers ,trout oncorhynchus-mykiss - Abstract
00000 ăWOS:000382802100022; International audience; Human alteration of marine ecosystems is substantial and growing. Yet, no adequate methodology exists that provides reliable predictions of how environmental degradation will affect these ecosystems at a relevant level of biological organization. The primary objective of this study was to develop a methodology to evaluate a fish's capacity to face a well-established environmental challenge, an exposure to chemically dispersed oil, and characterize the long-term consequences. Therefore, we applied high-throughput, non-lethal challenge tests to assess hypoxia tolerance, temperature susceptibility and maximal swimming speed as proxies for a fish's functional integrity. These whole animal challenge tests were implemented before (1 month) and after (1 month) juvenile European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) had been acutely exposed (48 h) to a mixture containing 0.08 g L-1 of weathered Arabian light crude oil plus 4% dispersant (Corexit(C) EC9500A), a realistic exposure concentration during an oil spill. In addition, experimental populations were then transferred into semi-natural tidal mesocosm ponds and correlates of Darwinian fitness (growth and survival) were monitored over a period of 4 months. Our results revealed that fish acutely exposed to chemically dispersed oil remained impaired in terms of their hypoxia tolerance and swimming performance, but not in temperature susceptibility for 1 month post-exposure. Nevertheless, these functional impairments had no subsequent ecological consequences under mildly selective environmental conditions since growth and survival were not impacted during the mesocosm pond study. Furthermore, the earlier effects on fish performance were presumably temporary because re-testing the fish 10 months post-exposure revealed no significant residual effects on hypoxia tolerance, temperature susceptibility and maximal swimming speed. We propose that the functional proxies and correlates of Darwinian fitness used here provide a useful assessment tool for fish health in the marine environment.
- Published
- 2016