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Reproductive Disruption in Wild Longear Sunfish ( Lepomis megalotis ) Exposed to Kraft Mill Effluent
- Source :
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Publication Year :
- 2006
- Publisher :
- Environmental Health Perspectives, 2006.
-
Abstract
- Worldwide, wild fish living in rivers receiving municipal and industrial discharges may experience endocrine disruption as a result of exposure to anthropogenic pollutants. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hormonal status of wild fish in a U.S. river receiving unbleached kraft and recycled pulp mill effluent (Pearl River at Bogalusa, LA). We evaluated two alternative hypotheses: the effluent contained constituents that suppressed male and female reproduction, or it contained an androgenic substance that masculinized females. To evaluate the likelihood of fish exposure to effluent, we marked 697 longear sunfish (Lepomis megalotis) over a 2-year period; 83% of recaptured fish were found at the site of initial capture, and only one fish migrated from an effluent-receiving site to a reference site. We can reasonably assume that fish captured from an effluent-receiving site are residents, not transitory migrants. To diagnose endocrine disruption, we measured sex steroid hormone [17beta-estradiol (E2), testosterone (T), and 11-ketotestosterone (11KT)] and vitellogenin (VTG) concentrations in male and female longear sunfish captured at two sites upstream and two sites downstream of the effluent outfall. Kraft pulp mill effluent did not affect male reproductive physiology but did suppress female T and VTG levels when effluent constitutedor=1% of river flow. Masculinization was not observed. Longear sunfish in the Pearl River experience moderate reproductive suppression in response to unbleached kraft and recycled pulp mill effluent.
- Subjects :
- Male
Paper
endocrine system
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Industrial Waste
11-ketotestosterone
Zoology
complex mixtures
Waste Disposal, Fluid
Lepomis
Vitellogenins
chemistry.chemical_compound
Rivers
Animals
Effluent
Longear sunfish
teleost
Estradiol
biology
Ecology
Reproduction
Research
digestive, oral, and skin physiology
17β-estradiol
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
endocrine disruption
Louisiana
biology.organism_classification
Perciformes
chemistry
paper mill effluent
testosterone
Fish
11-Ketotestosterone
Female
Anthropogenic pollutants
vitellogenin
Kraft paper
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15529924 and 00916765
- Volume :
- 114
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Environmental Health Perspectives
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....641337ed1bce0f027bcb40662eb929bf