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Effluents collected from the industrial complex of Pancevo, Serbia (oil refinery, petrochemical plant, and fertilizer factory) are discharged into a wastewater canal entering the Danube River. In this study, which was focused on sediment assessment, a complex triad approach consisting of chemical analysis, sediment toxicity tests and macrozoobenthos community analysis was applied. In toxicity tests on sediment elutriates, the following responses were registered - stimulatory effect in algal bioassay, no effect in acute test with Daphnia magna, and low to moderate toxicity in the conventional Vibrio fischeri test. Moderate to high toxicities were recorded in solid phase tests on Myriophyllum aquaticum and V. fischeri. High content of Hg, certain PAHs and noncharacterised sediment contaminants accumulated over years contribute not only to the registered toxicity, but also to the complete absence of macrozoobenthos. The obtained results proved that regularly measured conventional and priority pollutants are hardly ever the only toxic contaminants present in sediments. Toxicity tests, in particular the contact test, might guide towards a better selection of parameters to be regularly or occasionally monitored. In addition, complete sediment toxicity tests proved to be an appropriate method for assessing the bioavailability of the chemically detected contaminants. The analysis of the macrozoobenthos composition and structure as inevitable part of sediment risk assessment procedures integrates the effects of multiple stressors and gives a realistic insight into not only sediment contamination by toxic pollutants, but also the sediment status in general.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the sensitivity of two bacterial tests commonly used in metal toxicity screening — the Vibrio fischeri bioluminescence inhibition test and the Pseudomonas putida growth inhibition test — in comparison to the standard acute Daphnia magna test, and to estimate applicability of the selected methods to the toxicity testing of environmental samples. The D. magna acute test proved to be more sensitive to cadmium (Cd), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) than the two bacterial assays, whereas P. putida seems to be the most sensitive species to lead (Pb). Manganese appears to be slightly toxic to D. magna and non-toxic to the two selected bacteria. This leads to the conclusion that even in regions with high background concentrations, manganese would not act as a confounding factor. Low sensitivity of V. fischeri to heavy metals questions its applicability as the first screening method in assessing various environmental samples. Therefore, it is not advisable to replace D. magna with bacterial species for metal screening tests. P. putida, V. fischeri and/or other bacterial tests should rather be applied in a complex battery of ecotoxicological tests, as their tolerance to heavy metals can unravel other potentially present toxic substances and mixtures, undetectable by metal-sensitive species.

The relationship between whole effluent toxicity (WET) and chemical-based effluent quality assessment across a range of effluent types was examined for the first time in Serbia. WET was determined by Daphnia magna acute tests, while chemical-based toxicity was taken as theoretical for concentrations of priority chemicals and effluent quality assessment based on the valid Serbian regulations. A poor correlation was found between WET and chemical-based effluent quality assessment: positive toxicity tests were found, in general, in cases where samples satisfied the requirements of mandatory effluent monitoring. Statistically insignificant correlation between the predicted and observed toxicity indicated that the presence of priority substances accounted to the overall toxicity only to a certain degree, most probably due to a rather short list of priority pollutants regularly analysed in effluents. Current monitoring requirements neglect hazards that derive from potentially present toxicants and unpredictable toxicity of complex mixtures, which led to poor correlation between the WET and chemical-based results in this study.

REP-LECOTOX project - INCO-CT-2006-043559-REP-LECOTOX UNSPMF - Reinforcement of research potential of Laboratory for Ecotoxicology (LECOTOX) of University of Novi Sad Faculty of Sciences funded by EC FP6 (2007-2009) presented a crucial milestone for LECOTOX, both in terms of overall research performance and its visibility and presentation to international scientific community. The project enabled upgrading and renewal of ST School of Bioscience, University of Birmingham, UK and RECETOX, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. The project enabled LECOTOX, focusing mainly on two research topics, i.e. endocrine disruption/reproductive toxicity, and identification and characterisation of aquatic toxicity, to form a functional competitive research team ready for combining transcriptomics with the established conventional toxicity tests and traditional function-based biomarkers. LECOTOX became well-equipped and experienced research group confident enough to join any FP or otherwise funded ecotoxicological research project and network.

The Workshop “Ecotoxicogenomics: The challenge of integrating genomics/proteomics/metabolomics into aquatic and terrestrial ecotoxicology” held in Novi Sad, Serbia, at UNSFS, Department of Biology and Ecology, organized as a part of the Project INCO-CT-2006-043559-REP-LECOTOX, brought together experts in the field of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics. Five plenary lectures and seven lectures on the specific themes, as well as discussion afterwards, gave to participants a comprehensive insight into the possibility of application of omic technologies in the field of ecotoxicology. The workshop was attended by approximately 50 participants mostly from Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia (Fig. 1). The Workshop program was prepared by the Scientific Committee: J.K. Chipman, S. Scholz, K. Hilscherova, and R. Kovacevic. In the first keynote lecture “Overview of ecotoxicogenomics,” Prof. J.K. Chipman (School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, UK) stressed that a major advantage of functional genomics technologies, which enable measurements of thousands of transcripts, proteins, and metabolites, is their “open” nature that does not require prior assumptions about the choice of biomarkers, thus, being particularly valuable to assess mechanisms of action and the effect of mixtures of chemicals where unknown biological targets may be involved. He also pointed out that attention needs to be given to distinguishing between compensatory, adaptive, and toxic responses and to discovering patterns of change that are diagnostic and predictive. Many interesting examples of “omic” responses were shown together with discussion and proposals for use of such data in ecological monitoring and risk assessment. In the second keynote lecture “Environmental transcriptomics—predicting adverse and long-term effects,” Dr. Stefan Scholz (Department for Cell Toxicology, UFZ, Leipzig, Germany) showed that information obtained by whole genome analysis can be useful if they are linked to appropriate applications, such as the identification of mechanisms of action or biomarkers for biomonitoring and the prediction of (long-term) adverse effects. His presentation highlighted two examples demonstrating applications in ecotoxicology and/or regulatory testing: the first one was the application of gene expression as a marker for long-term adverse effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals, while the second highlighted example described the potential application of gene expression markers for the prediction of chronic fish toxicity by extending the fish embryo test from acute to chronic toxicity test. In the third keynote lecture “Environmental proteomics,” Dr. Thomas Knigge (Laboratoire d’Ecotoxicologie— Milieux Aquatiques, Universite du Havre, France) pointed out that the proteomic profile represents a link between effects at the molecular and whole organism level, since proteins are the first functional level directly or indirectly affected by toxicants. Showing the results of several different studies using gel and non-gel-based proteomics, he illustrated some of the practical and conceptual difficulties when applying proteomics to ecotoxicological studies. He stressed the needs for sophisticated bioinformatics and Environ Sci Pollut Res (2009) 16 (Suppl 1):S130–S131 DOI 10.1007/s11356-009-0128-2